REID ON TRAVEL

Best Canadian City: my awards

2012-01-28T10:17:00.020-05:00

Quick! What's the best Canadian city? The subject has led to a lively discussion on Lonely Planet's Thorn Tree, something so prickly that Toronto-based author Andrew Potter suggested could actually bring about a civil war.

Most people equate Canada with its natural beauty, or hockey, or Mounties, or beaver nickels. Last year I visited Canada six times, mostly to focus on Canadian cities (resulting in this string of videos on Canadian cities). I like Canadian cities. So thought I'd put together my awards.

(Note: I've not been to Halifax, among others.)

Canadian city most want to live in: MONTREAL. Montreal is ridiculous. A top-five city in the world to me. I love a place that takes bikes seriously (public-use bikes clean-up canal rides), and the city truly beats NYC with bagels. Plus all sorts of playful architecture, like a orange-shaped food stand (that serves as my Twitter photo) and the unreal Habitat '67 (above).

Canadian city with most interesting neighborhood: TORONTO's post-hippie Toronto Islands. You get there by ferry, it has super views looking back on TO (above), a fun community of locals that have survived development, a hokey amusement park, nude beaches and the spot where Babe Ruth hit his first homerun.

Canadian city that's best in winter: QUEBEC CITY. Its winter carnival has dog-sled races and a huggable snow man, and there's free open-air skating rinks, minor league hockey with NHL buzz, ferry rides over the icy St Lawrence. Plus curling.

Canadian city with most energy: right now, WINNIPEG. I enjoy having French food across the river in St Boniface (and seeing the atmospheric cathedral ruin), but I've never seen more energy than at the Winnipeg Jets' first win (above). (If you don't think Peg is a hockey town, watch Guy Maddin's hilarious 'My Winnipeg' documentary.)

Canadian city with them most tunefully suggestive name: SASKATOON, SASKATCHEWAN. Pronounced as SASKaTOON by locals. It's the place I zeroed in on during back-seat atlas-scavenger-hunts on long roadtrips as a kid. Plus the saskatoon berry makes for a nice pie.

Canadian city that’s most beautiful: Easy, VANCOUVER. Views from False Creek ferries are worthy, as is a revolving meal up Landmark hotel (above).

Canadian city that most surprised me: EDMONTON. Expected a flat oil town, and immediately struck by the deep river valley linked with shady trails and crossed by a historic bridge to Strathcona's theaters and bookshops. (I bought a used copy of the full transcript of Louis Riel's trial. Yet to read, must say.) And I was surprised when 12-year-olds agreed to teach me hockey in the second-biggest mall in North America.

Canadian city most want to return to: ST JOHN'S, NEWFOUNDLAND. It's not just the apostrophe, seafood, rugged coast, local kids with Bieber haircuts and the voice of 70-year-old pirates, but its friendly vibe of a place that really sees itself as its own nation.

19 random Burma photos

2012-01-24T14:16:00.008-05:00

Saskatoon frenzy (it's a)

2012-01-23T10:50:00.006-05:00

I wrote a song for Saskatoon recently (debuted at the end of this video).

And apparently Saskatoon is delighted.

A local on this CBC News TV broadcast calls the song 'pretty catchy.'

Global Saskatoon broadcast says 'Saskatoon Sensation' does a 'good job.'

Article covering it on CTV News.

And a delighted Saskatoon is a delighted Robert.

Saskatoon in B/W

2012-01-21T12:54:00.000-05:00

While in Saskatoon, making this video, I took some black-and-white photos on my old 35mm camera. It felt as cleansing as a summer rain on a muddy face to do. Here they are.

Granite Curling Club is the city's oldest.

Calories was once the Louis Riel Coffeehouse, where Joni Mitchell played one of her first shows.

Finding the Saskatoon Sensation [video]

2012-01-19T14:23:00.016-05:00

Ever since reading about Timbuktu in Dr Seuss' 'Hop on Pop' as a kid, I've concocted all sorts of wild visions of what places are like based on the sound of their names. The more unusual, the more magical the skyline I envisioned. Of course, it rarely works out that way -- Tahlequah isn't all that different from Fort Smith -- but it did help fill hours in the back of a station wagon on family road trips. I'd ignore the 'Annie' soundtrack my sister played and disect the road atlas, pouncing on places like Okefenokee, Truth or Consequences and Chevy Chase and wonder what they really looked like.

One place I found towards the back of the atlas always resonated with me most: Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. Just saying it aloud sounded like a toy train wobbling across a cobblestone bridge, guarded by bunnies. Nothing else really compares. It even won my recent poll for most 'tunefully suggestive' city name:

Some songwriters have noticed its rhythmic nomenclature over the years, including songs like Sonny James' fun 'A Little Bit South of Saskatoon,' Johnny Cash's 'The Girl in Saskatoon,' and the Guess Who's 'Running Back to Saskatoon' -- which Pearl Jam tried to do as well.

But did locals ever chip in on the lyrics, I wondered? I mean, in travel we say that locals make for great experiences, but can locals make great lyrics?

So when I was there recently (to create a video for Lonely Planet/Canada Tourism), I carved away a precious day to find out. I met with a pierced t-shirt maker, a curling vet, a indie rocker, a high-end bass-guitar maker and Canada's 'Craziest Mayor' -- to ask how they summed up the 'Saskatoon sensation.' I took their answers for lyrics, then made up a song. (It's debuted at the end of the video.)

Pearl Jam, if you cover it, go ahead. I won't sue.

By the way, a note on how Saskatoon got its name. In the 1880s, John Lake, of the Temperance Colonization Society of Toronto, founded Saskatoon because his notoriously by-the-book home town back east was just too sinful. (Alcohol and prostitution would soon follow though, and Lake himself would be found guilty of corruption.)

Regardless, on a sunny day in 1883, Lake named the new settlement for the local juicy berries he so enjoyed to snack on. Good choice, but a wrong one. Apparently saskatoon berries weren't in season at the name's chosen hour, and chokecherries were. Should the name really be Chokecherry, Saskatchewan?

It's not a bad name. But I'm not sure it deserves a song.

I Woke Up with Al

2012-01-04T15:02:00.006-05:00

I shared a few good-value destinations for 2012 -- and talked a bit about Al Roker's 'pal' Marco Polo -- on the Weather Channel's Wake Up for Al this morning.

51 Lessons Learned from Travel in 2011

2011-12-28T10:13:00.042-05:00

Sometimes I hear from people I have a 'dream job.' I do get to travel a lot, talk about travel, think about travel -- so, yes, it can be pretty good. For 2011 I spent a lot of my time in Canada -- five separate trips! -- and with heavy metal singers. Here's my 51:

1. Quebec City's better in winter, but the Ice Hotel is nuts. It's so cold after a couple hours you can still shiver in a hot tub (literally).
2. Sandwiches will always be funny. Like this London street:
3. And talking about sandwiches can not only get you a mention in the New Yorker, but you'll learn things like Massachusetts courts had to settle a dispute between Panera Bread and Qdoba Mexican Grill over what a sandwich really is. And that when Elvis picked a cover for his first gospel album, he went to Sandwich, Massachusetts.
4. Seeing a 'black rodeo' in Boley, Oklahoma was great, but nothing compared to its 'potato on the stick.'

5. Osama Bin Laden's place of death -- Abbottabad, Pakistan - inspired the worst poem in history.
6. From the air at night, Regina, Saskatchewan looks like a tidy, obedient square of city light.
7. If you run smack forehead-to-chin into Ann Curry at NBC's Today Show studio, she will immediately apologize.
8. Curling in Quebec comes with tassled hats, beer, chocolate and a free failed lesson.
9. There is a name for my long love/dislike relationship with Russia, per Ian Frazier, a qualified 'Russia-love.'
10. It's not fun being hog-tied, even if it's at 'Mountie school.'

11. Williamsburg, Brooklyn, is named for a whining fort-maker who took his fort-making materials and went home in a huff when he wasn’t allowed to run his own fort in the War of 1812.
12. Iceland is a shorter flight from New York than New York to San Francisco. And it is absolutely unreal. Even on my mental two-day trip to Arukeyri to see volcanic craters.

13. Bruce Dickinson of Iron Maiden –- pilot, fencer, author, metal legend -- is a really nice guy.

14. It's important to be very very careful where and when you wear GREEN SHORTS, or you might end up in a travel brochure like I did.
15. The cheapest way to stay in a Frank Lloyd Wright building is in his only skyscraper, in Bartlesville, Oklahoma.
16. There’s an old sign for the long-demolished Knickerbocker Hotel on the subway platform on the Shuttle line at 42 St/Times Square.
17. Nice seeing Haiti considering travel as means for rebuilding, per its booth at Berlin's ITB.
18. Cleveland’s Rock’n’Roll Hall of Fame -- which I've banned -- says yes to Bob Seger, Jackson Browne, Donovan (!?), the Small Faces (!?) and someone named Tom Dowd (!?) but still won’t consider adding Rush – the third-biggest selling band of all time.
19. By the way, there's at least one female Rush fan.
20. Playing hockey with 12-year-olds in an Edmonton mall is exactly as much fun as it sounds.

21. It's apparently best to save Kate Winslett and your mom from a fire while naked. Per the world's most famous goatee.
22. Yes, the Montreal bagel is better than the New York City bagel.
23. Getting a look inside Montreal's bizarre Habitat '67 housing complex feels like being in a concrete toy-block castle.

24. Lord Stanley -- of Stanley Cup fame -- thought a lot of himself. So much when he created a Vancouver park for all 'colours, creeds and customs' to enjoy 'for all time,' he named it, naturally, after himself.
25. Amelia Earhart twice failed to reach the tiny Howland Island, which the US claimed in the 1800s because of all its bird poo. You still can’t go.
26. Ever wondered what happened to Scooby Doo's van? Yep, just as I expected, it's outside Joni Mitchell's old house in Saskatoon.

27. Sir Humphrey Gilbert is the father of British colonialism. And a very clumsy one. He ignored Queen Elizabeth, wrecked his boat in St John's, Newfoundland, spouted off its new colonial status to small gathering of indifferent Spanish and French settlers, said he was staying for good, then left a week later, cut his foot, got sick, sailed off back to Europe on a leaky boat, which promptly sank, drowning Sir Humphrey Gilbert. We need a movie.
28. Professional writers who blog aren't bloggers, they're 'jourblists.'
29. The curator of Iceland's Phallological Museum, who retired a couple months after my interview below, knows exactly how NOT to preserve a penis specimen.

30. Travel costs are up 46% more than inflation in the last 61 years.
31. You can build and destroy an igloo in Queens.
32. Maybe the next big thing in travel isn't street food or 'local travel' but closing your eyes.
33. One of the reasons B&Bs scare me -- things like this beside your bed:

34. Hockey fans are a lot happier when they win. (Than when they lose.)

35. Before Dudley Do-Right, there were 'singing Mountie' films.

36. The real name for a gopher is the Richardson's Ground Squirrel.
37. After I returned from a (short) morning jog, a Saskatchewan B&B house-cleaner who longs to move to New York told me, in a feverish sing-song rat-a-tat, 'You ran around the lake? They just found a body over there. Couldn't tell who because he was so rotted, just the sex. So that's kinda cool.'
38. Elvis had Graceland, the Red Elvis had this (in East Berlin):

39. London has hills!
40. Speaking of which, the pub on the cover of the Kinks' iconic 'Muswell Hillbillies' album is really really lame now ('Dusk till Dawn' by the Archway tube station).
41. The 'rat alley' -- where Robert Sullivan spied on rats in his superb New York City book, 'Rats' -- is rat-free during the day. (This video shows where it is.)

42. Maryland's bizarre uniform choice -- football's first color-clashing bi-helmet -- is underrated.
43. The sweet 80-something Berlin lady who fell in a subway station, and I helped get up, tenderly rubbed my hand with her red knit-gloved hand as we went down the stairs together. We didn't share a word of common language -- other than 'danke' -- but I'll remember that.
44. I was shocked to see how easy it is to sneak behind Lincoln at Ford's Theater. Memo to 1865 presidential advisers in a city bordering an enemy state: put a guard outside the door.
45. DC's metro stations are underrated.

46. So are Montreal's.

47. I got to go to Newfoundland in 2011, and Newfoundland is simply a GIFT to travel.
48. If you don't get the 'Paris in the 20s' thing -- and I didn't for years -- Ernest Hemingway's 'A Moveable Feast' will change that.
49. The honorary ReidOnTravel Certificate of Merit for Best Film goes to 'The Artist.' A silent film in 2011 -- yes, thank you.
50. My favorite place to fly over? Nevada. Its marbled mountains look like decapitated Shar Peis huddled together -- I want to get out there and drive it every time I see it.
51. Lips from Anvil told me in Toronto that since this wonderful, heart-breaking documentary he's finally been able to quit his day job and focus just on music for the first time, well, ever. 'I'm living the dream.'

How to have a Robust Christmas (Part III)

2011-12-22T11:35:00.005-05:00

Two years ago, the 76-Second Travel Show noted how the use of 'robust' had risen steeply on both sides of the Atlantic, while creating a new Christmas carol for the ages, 'Robust Christmas (Let's Make It Robust).' Here's the video:

And the trend continued last year too in the US, with a steep rise from 900 usages to over 1400 in the New York Times (slightly above this year's mark of 1371, as of Dec 22).

But to celebrate Robust Christmas III, we thought -- here at 76-Second Travel Show headquarters -- to take an alternate take at gauging the rise of robust. By use in headlines.

This graph shows that the New York Times show rises of use of 'robust' in a headline has doubled in the past two years:

Yes, you find robust everywhere: most robust balance sheet in history, robust menu, robust specimens, robust African-American woman, the robustness of the findings, a robust start (to baseball angst), and so on.

And travel is not exempt. Paulie Theroux dropped the R-bomb on Dutch lit of all things.

If robust is here to stay, and grow, what better way to celebrate than having a robust Christmas?

So please do.

What is 'travel writing'?

2011-12-09T13:49:00.002-05:00

A couple days ago I noted, on Twitter, that some of the entries in the new Best American Travel Writing: 2011 aren't really travel stories.

One is a New Yorker piece on the Shinnecock reservation at the Hampton of Hamptons, Southhampton. Writer Ariel Levy talks with officials on efforts to create/block a casino that will likely further clog the Long Island Expressway.

Another (Tom Ireland's 'Famous') follows a coincidentally timed trip just after the terrorist attacks to Bombay. It dwells almost exclusively, with much evident research back home, as a profile of the lone surviving gunman.

I liked both. But just going to places that travelers go to, and asking questions and writing things down, shouldn't always qualify a piece as a 'travel story,' I'd think.

Pondering this, I tracked down this self-congratulatory essay by Paul Theroux called 'Travel Writing: The Point of It.' In it, he claims travel writing is worthy only if it predicts subsequent events (most guidebooks, by the way, are 'bloodless' to him). In that case, it can perform a 'unique function... to express a country's heart, as long as it stays away from vacations, holidays, sightseeing, and the half-truths in official handouts.' Which is kinda funny.

He's talking about his book Riding the Iron Rooster, researched in 1987, which sort of predicts the 1989 events at Beijing's Tiananmen Square. (I guess; I've not read it.) Reviewers had called it 'grumpy,' and it apparently bothered him -- enough so, he felt compelled to note, like a winning quarterback, that it sold half a million books. (Really? Pulling the whole sales:value card, huh?)

It's a good goal, I'm sure, but I hope it's not the only way travel writing works. In fact, Pico Iyer's Yangon chapter in the classic Video Nights in Kathmandu, researched just before the 1988 (failed) revolution in Burma, dwelled on students' moonwalking skills. No hint of brewing discontent.

But does that make it bad travel writing?

I think Theroux and Iyer are right to focus their writing on people -- not just officials -- but regular ol' people. Doing so can stand for a bigger picture of how a place lives and feels. And their writing tends to be 'open' to the destinations, using travel as a means of discovery. That seems key too.

But I'd like to think that technique works in places without impending revolutions too? That is, as long as you stay clear of 'sightseeing.'

Journal: Omaha Man, 2001

2011-12-07T14:29:00.002-05:00

I'm in the long process of digitizing a couple dozen journals put together on Lonely Planet, and other, research trips over the past decade or so. I really liked this guy, met in Omaha on my first LP assignment: updating the Great Plains chapter of the USA guidebook in the spring of 2001:

William Reeves volunteers at Omaha's Great Plains Black History Museum. He's 74, originally from Kansas City. Says he played alto and tenor sax in the late '40s down there. Another musician he knew -- a 'bully' - once hit a heckler 'with his horn,' he said. 'Then someone beat him up so bad he died.' Asked if he liked jazz today. 'Oh, sure. You just have to be where it's at, y'know? Preston Love at the Omaha Star [a 'black paper' nearby], he played horn with Basie. He'd know.' Williams says he regularly goes back to Kansas City -- 'for barbecue runs, and for funerals.'

Trying to Tumbl

2011-11-14T09:39:00.001-05:00

I resisted its charms for awhile, but just starting to Tumbl on Tumblr. Still figuring out why. See the madness here.

Travel's MVP, the Sandwich

2011-11-08T08:59:00.003-05:00

More sandwiches. Last week, in tribute of National Sandwich Day, I shared my sandwich map, which prompted to write this: why the sandwich is travel's MVP for my column with the Daily Oklahoman.

Top 10 Travel Knock-Knock Jokes (Part 2)

2011-11-07T08:49:00.001-05:00

We did it before: assembled an astonishing from-scratch list of Top 10 Travel Knock-Knock Jokes, and this time we're upping the ante.

1. Knock knock
Who's there?
French Guiana
French Guiana who?
French Gu-iana mad hunt for some tight-fitting jeans out here. You have any?

2. Knock knock
Who's there?
Ecuador
Ecuador who?
E-cuador can't even buy a pack of gum these days. Can I bum a fiver?

3. Knock knock
Who's there?
Bhutan
Bhutan who?
Bhutan some mustard to this sandwich! It's a bit dry!

4. Knock knock
Who's there?
Iceland
Iceland who?
I-celandered your neighbor when I said his doorbell was broke. It's actually working!

5. Knock knock
Who's there?
Eurail
Eurail who?
Eu-railly indecisive about opening your door. This is the fifth time I've knocked, 'bro!

6. Knock knock
Who's there?
Mediterranean
Mediterranean who?
Med-i-terran-ean a tunnel and sure had to reverse my course mighty quick. Shouldn't a been walking on the train tracks.

7. Knock knock
Who is it, kindly?
Adriatic
Adriatic who?
A'driatictionary move to a knock is opening the fricking door. C'mon man!

8. Knock knock
Yes, who is, please tell?
Passport
Passport who?
Pass-portland, to the west, and you'll find excellent gold-sand beaches -- and less hipster annoyance.

9. Knock knock
Who's there?
Atlas
Atlas who?
At-last! I've been knocking for hours!

10. Knock knock
Who is it?
Colorado
Colorado who?
Call-a-rado surfer by his name-o, Mark Richards

Sandwich Map

2011-11-04T09:04:00.003-04:00

Lonely Planet recently published a book on travel infographics, How to Land a Jumbo Jet. I submitted a full-on 'sandwich map,' which was supposed to make it but unfortunately fell through the cracks based on intra-continental communication techniques. Alas.

But here it is. History and lore of sandwich-making, just in time -- a day late actually -- for National Sandwich Day.

While on the subject, I also visited Sandwich and talked about sandwiches.

Here's an excerpt:

Secret to 'local travel': SPORTS

2011-11-02T20:34:00.001-04:00

Several years ago in Guatemala, a couple shirtless sweating guys were hanging from a fence shaking their fist at me: the lone foreigner in the crowd. And that was a good thing.

Here's my column for Oklahoma City's Daily Oklahoman on why going to sporting events -- pro, amateur, high school -- is a great way to 'get local.'

Halloween in Transylvania

2011-10-31T11:41:00.003-04:00

Everyone wants to scare you on Halloween, I want to make you feel safe and secure. Here's a 76-Second Travel Show episode from two years ago that tells how.

Full Mountie: My Days as a RCMP Cadet

2011-10-29T09:09:00.004-04:00

A few months ago the Royal Canadian Mounted Police - Depot Division (Regina, Saskatchewan) invited me to spend a couple nights and a (full) day training as a "mountie." It's a rare opportunity. Apparently only five civilians before me had had the chance -- and I was apparently the only one to get a regulation moustache.

This Lonely Planet video sums up the misunderstood Canadian icon. It's no longer just blokes in red serge jackets, Stetson hats atop horses. The red serge, in face, is rarely worn -- only for occasions like graduation -- and horses were phased out of training in 1966.

At first glimpse, in the mess hall with Troop 5 (the most junior of the troops there), I had to ask one cadet, 'Do you ever look around and say, wow, I'm here with a bunch of COPS?' He admitted he did.

I certainly felt that way waking up at 4am to prep for the morning parade.

Not-for-Parents on Fox News Live

2011-10-26T09:57:00.003-04:00

Must admit it's kinda nice to be back in my regular role as US Travel Editor in New York after five on/off weeks crossing Canada to create web videos. I appeared on Fox News Live yesterday to discuss Lonely Planet's new 'Not for Parents' series of books -- sort of a comic/history/pop cultural/travel book on New York, London, Paris and Rome. And, yes, I did manage to squeeze in a Texas swipe.

Vancouver Video Notes

2011-10-15T17:00:00.001-04:00

I'm crossing Canada to create a video series of Canadian cities for Lonely Planet and Canadian Tourism Commission, and focus on a 'local' version of the city. A few things that didn't make the quick two-day shoot include the following:

Vancouver's a sports town that go well beyond last year's Stanley Cup losers. I saw a Whitecaps soccer game AND a BC Lions football game:

Wharf-side fish-and-chips at Go Fish, a short walk from Granville Island, is 'the best fish and chips in the world,' a local pal told me. I agreed.

In 'City of Glass,' Vancouverite writer Douglas Coupland claimed anyone will 'gasp' by taking a spin at the revolving restaurant atop the Landmark in West End. Food was surprisingly good, and the next table had two mullets.

I went to Sandwich! I went to Sandwich!

2011-10-03T21:44:00.013-04:00

The oldest town in Cape Cod, Massachusetts is Sandwich. I've wanted to go for a long time -- even before talking about sandwiches at Brooklyn's Adult Education series. And, finally, I went to Sandwich last week. For 60 full minutes.

Some notes.

1) It's quite pretty. Even charming.

2) I had a sandwich. It was a ham-and-swiss with honey mustard. Not bad.

3) Elvis used the Church of Christ, founded in 1638, for his 1967 gospel album 'How Great Thou Art.' They keep a copy in their foyer if you want to see it.

4) I wish all sandwich citizens could have a Barbara Walling.

5) It is a very bad idea to abandon a duck in Sandwich.

Going to Canada

2011-09-09T13:59:00.008-04:00

Tomorrow I head on a three-city visit to Canada: Toronto, Montreal and St John's in Newfoundland. It's part of a series of seven videos of seven Canadian cities and how one can 'experience a place like a local.'

It's far from my first time there (that would be age nine to Alberta; above). But to prep, I've been reading books like mad. Canadian books. Getting distracted on tangents like, hey, 'what is Canada?'

A lot of people think of Canada as just this:

But it's not the subject most Canadian authors seem to dwell on. 'Canada' -- as a nation, an identity, a concept -- is much more confusing. The question has a history.

The country's relationship with the US and Europe weighs heavy. In the 1943 book Unknown Country, Bruce Hutchinson tries to explain his nation for an American audience. He calls it a 'dual personality - not fully formed' but touts its name -- an Iroquoian word for 'village' (that for the world's second-largest country!) -- as 'wondrous and sweet': Canada!

He writes, 'The very word is like a boy's shout in the springtime!' I love that.

Karen Connelly, meanwhile, says of Canada in her book Touch the Dragon, that much remains unanswered. 'Even the name is a question.' (Can a da? Get it?)

Some define Canada by its niceness. Apparently a woman found with amnesia in California was taken for a Canadian simply by how incredibly nice she was (turns out she was from Edmonton). And in Moose Jaw Beauty Secrets, Albertan author Will Ferguson notes how the Trans-Canadian Highway marks each end as 'Mile Zero': 'two separate (but equal!) Mile Zeros.' Negotiation is nice.

Most of these books seem to begin their survey with Quebec. Canada seems ever fascinated with its relationship with, what some call, the ROC ('Rest of Canada') -- something made fun of by Why I Hate Canadians author Will Ferguson.

The Great Canada Novel -- Hugh MacLennan's wonderful Two Solitudes from 1945 -- takes on both sides of English/French-Canadian Montreal. In it, he calls Canada 'a large red splash on the map... still raw' and proclaims, 'if this sprawling half-continent has a heart, here it is.' In Quebec.

It's perhaps interesting to note that the Great Canada Novel is not currently in print in the USA.

Rather than join the discussion, yet, maybe I'll just shout that next spring.

Talking Oklahoma on Amateur Traveler

2011-09-03T18:30:00.003-04:00

When Chris Christensen of the Amateur Traveler asks if you want to talk about Oklahoma, you ask 'how high?' It was a pleasure to record this podcast:

Amateur Traveler Episode 295 - Travel to Oklahoma with Robert Reid from Lonely Planet

For more Oklahoma, here's my Top 22 list for Lonely Planet.

I'm in a Brochure!

2011-08-22T17:53:00.009-04:00

it's the AMERICAN dream

Something remarkable has happened.

A few years ago I flirted with the idea of restaging the Battle of Brooklyn, the obscure (but huge) battle of the Revolutionary War that sent scampy colonials running for the Bronx via Manhattan -- a huge, potential war-ending victory for the British before the war really got started.

The problem is, someone already was 'restaging' it, more or less, at Brooklyn's Green-Wood Cemetery. So I went. (Read about it here.)

This week is 'Battle Week' in Brooklyn, with a host of events linked with the battle. I happened to grab a brochure today, and noticed something shocking: I'M IN IT.

Check it out:

See the guy in the background? NO ONE but me wears green shorts like that. And the reenactor in question is someone I talked to too (footage also made this video). Here's my photo of the same bloke:

Getting accidentally included in a brochure due to bad photo-cropping skills? Check that off my list. So no matter what happens next, I got that going for me.

For more on Battle Week, go to www.theoldstonehouse.org.

How to Like Atlantic City

2011-08-17T07:10:00.003-04:00

Recently, my pal Paul Brady called Atlantic City a place that's 'hard to love.' I get that. During a short visit last year for Lonely Planet, I didn't exactly fall in love with Atlantic City either, but I got plenty out of my 35 hours of tracking down the source of all the Monopoly board properties.

Here's a video of the experience:

Using Monopoly as a 'guidebook' to AC, and it wasn't always easy to do, led me away from the casinos into a place where I found local-lifers in love with their home. It led me to used bookstores, old pizza places, lighthouses. The hunt for the Electric Company, actually a modern complex outside the center, almost felt like tracking down a buried treasure.

And also, I had fun.

To be honest, I could live happily if I never made it back to AC (though I felt a night at the Irish Pub was a time-travel experience, unlike anything I've had anywhere in the USA). But by searching out a pre-Trumpian era of AC, and meeting up with those who do love it, made me see it differently.

Sometimes I think that's the main thing travel is for.

76-Second Travel Show: 'Boley, Oklahoma'

2011-08-13T13:29:00.002-04:00

Boley! I never knew about Boley for years, not until going back home after 10 years as an expat Okie in places like New York, London, Melbourne and Saigon. I wrote more on Boley for Lonely Planet.

Meanwhile, this happened:

That's right, Lonely Planet is leading with Oklahoma. (And my article on Oklahoma's Top 22.) It's a very unusual week. In all the right ways.

Iceland's Penis Museum

2011-08-08T16:16:00.002-04:00

Mr Penis -- Sigurdur Hjartarson, curator of Iceland's Phallological Museum -- is retiring. But the museum will go on! Read about my recent visit on Lonely Planet.

What are the travel dreams of Iron Maiden?

2011-08-02T09:34:00.004-04:00

Last month I flew with Bruce Dickinson of Iron Maiden, who's flying for Iceland Express this summer (amidst a busy Maiden tour -- the guy's got energy). Much more happened than can be packed into a three-minute video -- him joking with the Icelandic crew, paying off his co-pilot $1 for a nice comment, whisking me past security, watching TSA agents asking when Maiden's playing New York next, getting on the Reykjavik tarmac to admire the Iron Maiden's Ed Force One from below.

Check out my full Q&A on Lonely Planet.

Thanks to Bruce. And my pals in Tulsa's Bozack for the soundtrack.

Top 2 Civil War Things to Do

2011-07-28T07:08:00.006-04:00

The Civil War is 150, which means four years of particularly robust re-enactments and a lot of new Civil War books. Even a CD or two.

Here are two things I recommend doing to tribute the occasion:

1. WATCH 'SHERMAN'S MARCH'

Do you know this 1986 documentary? At nearly three hours, it's way too long, but simply impossible to stop looking at once you start.

A heart-broken, deadpan-hilarious film-maker Ross McElwee (mostly behind the camera) wants to retrace the tragic figure of William Sherman on his (in)famous rampage through the South, a region he had loved and spent much time before the war. But McElwee's girlfriend dumps him after McElwee gets the film grant, so he ends up loosely following Sherman, while mostly flirting from behind the camera with a string of mesmerizingly bizarre southern women (a rocker, a 'prophet' actress, a Mormon, a hermit).

It is more a glimpse of '1981 South' -- when it was filmed -- than a Civil War doc. (The New York Times even called it a 'timely memoir of the '80s' in 1986!) Plus Burt Reynolds makes an unplanned cameo.

2. WATCH THIS

I made this two years ago at Gettysburg, and still await the answer on how Civil War re-enactors decide who dies first.

If pressed, I'd have to admit no one really knows.

Favorite Bathroom Door (Male Category)

2011-07-27T13:51:00.003-04:00

Sometimes we have to ask ourselves, why? Why do we travel? Part of the reason -- a big part -- is to track down the best bathroom door in the world. So far, this one from Churchill, Manitoba is the winner.

Photos: Women's World Cup '99

2011-07-25T09:06:00.009-04:00

Some sporting events mean more than others. We're a week removed from Japan's "heal a nation" upset win over the USA in the Women's World Cup. Much of the conversation around the game compared the American "girls of '11" with the famed "girls of '99," who -- by the way -- won their gold medal in penalty kicks medal after 120 minutes of a scoreless game against a (slightly more threatening) China team.

I happened to be there -- at the biggest, most important women's sporting event of all time. A sold-out Rose Bowl, a captivated nation, and President Bill Clinton eating chili dogs in the press box.

Here are a few photos. Note: the last one is the moment the Americans one, taken -- if you squint -- a moment before Brandi Chastain tears off her jersey.

Photo of the Day: Regina's RCMP Depot

2011-07-12T11:20:00.002-04:00

Every mountie in Canada comes through Regina, Saskatchewan -- home to the RCMP Depot, a training facility in place since 1885. Last week I served as a 'cadet for a day.' Marched for 6:30am inspection, learned how to remove people from cars (using ears, pain points) or putting them in (with a memorable groin toss). I got a regulation Mountie haircut & moustache, drove an advanced track, learned I have 14% body fat in fitness class ('that's better than average'), ate light meals at the mess hall, and met people from all over Canada.

In one troop, they joked I was the 'token moustache.' Proud to be.

It was exhausting. But an unreal experience. More on it soon.

What is a Mountie?

2011-07-05T11:59:00.005-04:00

Follow my mountie exploits this week at #MountieLand

I don't remember when I first heard of mounties, or wanted one of their red serge tunics and carefully pressed, flat-brim Stetson hats. It was definitely before Canada Day when I was 9. That's when my gerbil Steve bit my finger, I bled, I fainted, then flew to Calgary for a family vacation to Banff and Jasper. I never got the hat.

Today I'm off to Regina, Saskatchewan to make a Lonely Planet video on how one becomes a mountie. From the inside. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police "Depot" has trained mounties there since the late 1800s. Recently I asked about joining as a cadet for a '24-hour immersion.' And they surprisingly agreed. One official told me, 'They WON'T go easy on you.'

Uh-oh.

Meanwhile, a few things to consider about mounties:

They may be mounties, but they don't mount horses in Regina. Horse riding hasn't been part of the six-month training since 1966.
Women are mounties too. Since 1974.
Americans were once mounties. In the early 20th century, most mounties were recruited from elsewhere -- chiefly England but also the US. Canadians took over after the Depression. And now you have to be a Canadian citizen to qualify.
Mounties aren't for show. They're Canada's full municipal and federal police, akin to 'Canada's equivalent to the FBI,' per the New York Times.
Mounties still wear the red serge tunic and Stetson (yay!), but only in special occasions, like the daily 'Noon Parade' in Regina, at graduation.
Dudley Do-Right was invented by a couple blokes from Berkeley, California, and animated in Mexico. And, yes, it IS the same voice behind Bullwinkle, George of the Jungle and Dudley (Bill Scott).

So I go. Very scared. Stayed tuned for more.

Fly to Live: Aboard Iron Maiden's Ed Force One

2011-06-27T10:02:00.007-04:00

Iron Maiden's Bruce Dickinson has been flying jets for 10 years. Last week, I joined him on the Iron Maiden plane -- the infamous 'Ed Force One' -- on a flight for Iceland Express from Newark to Reykjavik. (The budget airline is expanding its North American routes, with Iceland-bound flights from Boston, Chicago, Newark and Winnipeg).

Bruce is a great guy, offering me jet views from the cockpit and the Iceland tarmac. He told me flying is a 'huge privilege,' like a 'miracle,' even a 'spiritual' experience when you get to hover over 'the earth's shadow.' That's why he keeps this part-time job, as a CAPTAIN pilot, amidst a summer Iron Maiden tour (after Iceland, he was jetting to Basel via London for a Maiden show -- in different attire, no doubt).

Ed Force One, as seen in the super Maiden documentary Flight 666, is 'a bit of a superstar,' to Dickinson. (Actually it's a bit dated, but fine to fly.)

I had fun watching boarding passengers in the terminal gawk at the plane out the window. 'Ohh, we're getting the Iron Maiden plane!,' I heard one voice, turning to find a 50-something New Jersey mom. 'What's the singer/pilot's name again?' Her daughter coolly answered, 'Bruce something.' I gave them the full name. 'Oh I hope he's flying today!'

He was.

I'll have more of my interview with Bruce soon, but thought I'd share some photos.

Photo: Iceland Horses

2011-06-27T07:54:00.000-04:00

Last Thursday began with Iron Maiden's Bruce Dickinson walking me around the Reykjavik airport tarmac to see 'Ed Force One' (the Iron Maiden plane) from all angles. I then flew to Akureyri -- after an hour walk-around central Reykjavik -- took a car past fjords, snow-capped peaks, fishing streams, water falls to Husavik, to see its penis museum (more later), a whale-watching cruise (puffins galore, a few humpbacks) and then saw these guys: Icelandic horses, all lined up.

Not a bad Thursday.

Flying to Iceland with Bruce Dickinson

2011-06-22T18:07:00.003-04:00

Bruce Dickinson, lead singer of Iron Maiden (and very funny guy), is flying planes for Iceland Express in his off-season. That's too good to resist. So I'm going on his jet tonight from Newark to Reykjavik. Not a bad place to go for long weekend from US East Coast: links from Newark, Boston & Chicago; it's a shorter flight than NY-LA; and with US$600 fares just a couple days before departure.

So I go, with Bruce Dickinson at the wheel. (Did I make it?)

A bit on Bruce.

Bruce flies a big jet:

Bruce rides a Soviet tank:

Why Bruce is funny:

Bruce fencing on MTV. He once finished 7th in the UK. Guy's serious:

Oh yeah, Bruce singing. Here's 'Flight of Icarus' from the glory days (which are still going on):

NYC's East River Ferry: Free to June 24

2011-06-17T09:57:00.007-04:00

This week the East River Ferry has brought back regular ferry service to the 18-mile East River, which is a nice reminder that New York -- down deep, away from skyscraper canyons -- is a river city.

New York was founded not because of the chunky rocks that glaciers pushed to present-day Central Park, but the Hudson and the East Rivers. The first ferry to cross from Brooklyn to Manhattan began in 1642, back when the colony was Dutch. In 1776, George Washington fled with 9500 troops after the disastrous Battle of Brooklyn -- escaping from wig-wearing Brits at night through Manhattan; the war was saved, and all because of the ferry. By 1870, 50 million annual passengers took steamboats across the river. That service ended in the mid 1920s.

Run by NY Waterways, East River Ferry's rides are free through June 24. Afterwards, visitors can buy a day pass for $12, nice considering MTA recently suspended the one-day 'fun pass' for New York subways and buses.

To help plan a day, I put together this planner for some of the main ferry stops for Lonely Planet. Just a $4 ride from Wall Street to Midtown sounds better than the subway too.

I also got to speak on all the new ferry fun at a New York Waterways/East River Ferry event at Fulton Ferry Landing in Brooklyn last night... right after Brooklyn mayor Marty Markowitz.

Hope he's not mad that I said I live/work in Queens.

76-Second Travel Show: 'Who Is Dean Reed?'

2011-06-13T12:03:00.004-04:00

Dean Reed, who died 25 years ago today in East Berlin, is my vote for one of the most fascinating people of all time. He outran a mule, picked up a random hitch-hiker with a Capitol Records contact that led to his recording contract, got huge in Uruguay, had dinner dates with Che Guevara, was the first rock star to appear in the USSR, and made movies with Yul Brynner, and eventually one billion people -- per some estimates -- knew who he was. About ten of which were Americans.

For free MP3s, see this German site.

Be a Jourblist

2011-06-12T06:59:00.002-04:00

Question: Is "blog" a bad word?

It's certainly used dismissively by beacons of the traditional media world, who frequently see blogs and social media as pesky, Napster-esque flies to the real champions of thought and journalism.

In Evgeny Mozorov's book The Net Delusion, he writes of the online world as a playground for "a bunch of bored hipsters who had an irresistible urge to share their breakfast plans," while Andrew Keen in Cult of the Amateur claims all the online revolution is delivering is "superficial observations of the world... rather than deep analysis."

Too often, I have to agree.

Now that anyone can self-publish, unsurprisingly, the level of poor-quality writing sinks the playing field in broader perception.

While planning to make today's speech on "research" at TBEX'11 in Vancouver, I started to think "blog" needs an alternate name. A "blog" would remain the outlet for casual posters, sharing photos and online travel diaries with friends and family. But something else would be needed for those of us who treat blogging as journalism, as a potential for work.

So, until a better suggestion comes along, I'm suggesting this:

A couple years ago, I chipped in on a NPR panel after three Americans were detained at the Iraq-Iran border. A former CIA guy dismissed them as "Berkeley bloggers," suggesting they were poking around a place that's marked with a very clear border. "They had to know they were crossing into Iran," he said.

Before going on air, I had poked around Lonely Planet's Thorn Tree, and found a blogger who had been recently to the same area, had photos of the region. I contacted him and asked, who told me, "I almost made the same mistake. It's very very difficult to know where one country begins and the other ends."

Not full-proof journalism, but -- unlike the CIA spouter -- he had actually been. So I quoted him.

Either way, I think it's time more of us try up our game. And never treat a blog post as "just a blog."

Vancouver Wins! (Game 5)

2011-06-11T09:20:00.007-04:00

Just as TBEX 2011 kicked off, the Vancouver Canucks won game five of the Stanley Cup finals and the city erupted. I heard hoots till 5am. One local told me, 'The energy today is much much bigger than the Olympics." And they've not won the Stanley Cup yet.

Boley, Oklahoma

2011-06-02T14:33:00.006-04:00

Oklahoma is known as 'Native America' -- at least per its license plates. No state has, per capita, more Native Americans than our 46th state, whose name means 'red people' in Choctaw language.

That's only part of the picture. Around the time of statehood in 1907, Oklahoma had over 40 'black towns,' settled largely from African Americans, chiefly freed slaves, migrating from the south and looking for more autonomy.

One of the greater success stories was Boley, Oklahoma -- about 10 miles northwest of Woody Guthrie's birthplace of Okemah. Now home to 1200 (though two-thirds live in state's nearby prison), Boley's heyday peaked at a population of 4000 prior to the Depression; much of that era is seen with boarded-up brick buildings on along main street.

It's a friendly place, with much history if you stop and chat, or get an appointment to see the Boley Historical Society (call Henrietta Hicks at 918-667-9790), housed in a century-old home you can arrange to sleep in for $35. There's a bank that Pretty Boy Floyd's gang failed to rob in 1932. And McCormick's Deli, on Highway 62, is the lone place to eat, known for its spiced 'pookie burger.'

Otherwise, the big draw is the 'Boley Rodeo,' a three-day 'black rodeo' held over Memorial Day weekend for, in some incarnation, since 1905, when it was staged merely to attract land-buyers. My favorite participant was Ross (above), a four-year-old barrel racer making his rodeo debut.

Around the arena, you'll find lots of food. The barbecue comes spicy, and nothing beats a cheese-covered 'potato-on-a-stick,' apparently a local invention by the hilarious Linda Sykes, a Boley native. I met her first in town. When she heard I had never had it, she instinctively took over the community center kitchen on Main Street, and fried me up a couple. (Ask around for her.)

My first visit here was ten years ago, while researching Lonely Planet's USA guide. It was a surprise. Though I grew up in nearby Tulsa, Boley didn't quite make my Oklahoma history classes. As one local put it, 'Black towns were wiped out of history books.'

It's time to put them back in.

Travel Etiquette on Today Show

2011-05-23T20:59:00.003-04:00

This happened:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Not everyday you get to share a Today Show stage with two former Okies (Hoda Kotb was born in Norman; Kathie Lee Gifford went to Oral Roberts University in Tulsa) -- then run smack into Ann Curry in the halls, and she apologizing for my error. Everyone seemed nice.

Talking Abbottabad on ABC's 20/20

2011-05-11T16:49:00.001-04:00

Following the news of Osama Bin Laden's death in Abbottabad, Pakistan last week, I had the chance to talk about the tourist appeal of the region's Karakoram Highway. I also learned that the city of 900,000 -- set in cool mountains a few hours north of Islamabad -- has a funny history.

Founded in mid 19th century (young for the region), Abbottabad got its unusual name from its founder Sir James Abbott, who was an effective British advisor during the Sikh Wars of the mid 19th-century -- and far far less so as a poet.

After leaving the city in 1853, he tributed it with a poem called, simply, 'Abbottabad.' Oxford poetry professor Stephen Moss wrote, in the Guardian in 2005, that was 'one of the worst poems ever written.' He claims it takes a genius to come up with 'non-sequitors' like that.

It's certainly the only one I've read that ends with the word 'thwart.'

"What is a Sandwich?"

2011-05-11T12:04:00.004-04:00

Last month a dream came true: I spoke about sandwiches for Adult Education. Here's two videos of the event. The above 'excerpt' version features the stirring conclusion that makes the (justifiable) claim that 'no one knows what a sandwich is.'

Or watch the presentation in full:

Meanwhile, see you -- as always -- on Twitter for #sandwichwednesday!

Talking Mexico on Fox News

2011-05-09T18:10:00.005-04:00

Appeared on FoxNews.com Live this morning to discuss my pick for Lonely Planet's eight safe Mexico destinations to consider. Didn't get Puebla in. And I want to go to Puebla. See the segment here.

Go to Mexico

2011-05-06T11:57:00.003-04:00

Nothing punctures misperception like actual travel. We saw it in the '90s for Vietnam, when Americans (in particular) worried they'd get detained or deported, then discovered a budding new ally of Southeast Asia; we see it when Middle Eastern nations shame us with their warmth and kindness. And there's ones closer at hand, like Mexico.

Despite a rise in drug violence, the news stories only tell part of the picture. And I wrote a piece for CNN.com on 'Why you should go to Mexico.' Fascinating seeing how ugly some of the reader's comments have gotten so quickly.

I also put together eight places to visit in Mexico now (safely) for Lonely Planet, all picked from the 17 of Mexico's 31 states that are excluded from any name-dropping in the US State Department's travel warning for Mexico.

Mexico, see you later this year.

Random Photo: "Yakutsk"

2011-05-02T14:38:00.003-04:00

If Yakutsk, Russia, ever gets a pro basketball team, can I suggest the name Yakutsk Cats?

Random Photo: Mekong Delta

2011-04-25T06:25:00.001-04:00

Those who only give the Mekong Delta a $10 or $15 from Saigon only get a brief look at Ben Tre, which is nice enough but stuffed with visitors (though this shot is from that area). Lost over the past decade is how much easier it's become to visit the delta on your own -- using buses, hiring moto-taxis to go over ferries and roads not on maps. In some cases, as the one above, I had a boat and a driver to myself -- and saw about five tourists in a full week.

World's Worst Jet Lag Flight?

2011-04-19T21:57:00.006-04:00

We all have our little tricks to minimize jet lag. Wearing blinders during day-hours en route. Sleep deprivation before a flight, followed by heavy doses of sleeping pills and on-board napping. Serious devotion to hydration. Magic. Sometimes it works, usually it doesn't. Jet lag is something we sort of have to live with.

But what's the worst flight for it? Maybe that monster 19-hour Newark-Singapore flight?

No. Any New York to California flight is the world's worst for jet lag. Seriously. And I can prove it, in a way.

When I fly west from New York, I take the first flight available (eg I fly to San Francisco at 6am this Sunday). Which means I'm usually up at 3am to get to the airport in time (I travel a lot, but I still show up very early -- I'm weird that way). That's midnight on the West Coast.

After landing at 11am (2pm EST) or noon (3pm EST), I meet people and do some talking and joking, get a burrito, a beer, and eventually stay up till midnight, at the minimum. Meaning I don't crash till after 3am New York time.

That's at least 24 straight waking hours.

No other flight I've ever taken am I up for more consecutive hours -- certainly not the Newark-Singapore flight, which I've done a couple times. And adjusting to the domestic jet lag of a NYC-SF flight takes me far longer than it should (gramma's rule: one day per time zone clicked).

Sure, I should sleep on the plane. But I never do. Maybe I should try more magic.

Random Photo: More Rush

2011-04-18T05:04:00.000-04:00

I've long believed there are five principal reasons we travel: to see people we know ('telephone travel'), to veg out ('TV travel'), to learn stuff or work ('ABC travel'), to stack up places visited ('tick-off travel') and to get experiences merely to boast about later ('show-off travel'). So I'm going to show off a bit. There's me, above, sitting at the Rush offices in Toronto surrounded by awards and gold records. Serious cocktail-party fodder right there.

Rush! Live!!

2011-04-14T10:16:00.008-04:00

Every time I hear a Rush song -- which is often -- I fall into a sad silence. Of triumphs unclaimed. Possibilities deflated. Failures realized.

It's not simple sentimentality, but the '76-Second Travel Show' episode that never was.

A few months ago I went to Rush's hometown Toronto and 'followed the band' -- with stops at the Rush office, Alex Lifeson's club, Alex and Geddy Lee's favorite sandwich shop and high school, and -- most memorably -- the suburban high school where they shot their quintessentially Rush video 'Subdivisions'; the principal suggested they do a Rush musical and invite me back, we talked while going through old yearbooks to find the subject of the video, Dave Glover, whom I'd later meet for coffee to talk Rush, rock, teen life and the meanings of that song's immortal line 'conform or be cast out.' He had a lot to say on it.

But my external mic had a short. Essentially all of the footage was lost.

As part of my healing process, I saw Rush for the first time in 25 years Sunday. I joined a sea of goatees, Giants jerseys, tummy pudge, raised fists and guys willing to sing along to songs from days long after Rush's albums started to mean less and less.

Rush have funny fans. Even in my peak Rush days, I was never sure I qualified as a 'Rush fan.' It takes a special quality to accept the band's distrust of anything resembling danceable rhythm, along with impossible time signatures, 12-minute songs and lyrics dealing with black holes, necromancers, Kubla Khan and Ayn Rand. Rush fans? Mostly male dorks in their 30s and 40s. And very very very few, if any, women.

In Toronto, a local fan -- and there weren't as many as you'd expect -- explained that the lyrics were 'too smart' for women. But it's not true! (Watch this stunner scene of young models dancing to Rush in BRAZIL.) And I was happy to see several women at Madison Square Garden, singing along to some songs and even swaying to brief moments when drummer Neil Peart stooped to the 4/4 beat.

Still, my lost interview with Dave Glover really smarts.

Random Photo: Me & a Mountie

2011-04-11T10:05:00.007-04:00

The first time I went to Canada was at age nine on Canada Day. In the morning my gerbil Steve bit my finger, and I fainted waiting for a band aid. After a plane change in Denver, and a drive from Calgary, I found myself in Banff. The mountains were superb -- I still gauge all mountains in how they compare with Canada's Rockies -- but I was looking for something else: a mountie.

Last week, at a Canadian Tourism Conference in New York, I finally met one from Saskatchewan, and he had a spare outfit.

Forgive the crappy quality of the photo. Sometimes the biggest hearts are a little fuzzy.

Royal London: Lonely Planet video

2011-04-06T09:47:00.007-04:00

Recently I had the chance to search out royal sites around London with Tom Hall, Lonely Planet's UK Travel Editor. The video takes in Westminster Abbey and Buckingham Palace, of course, but also drops by Scott the Horse and the best, and most historically accurate, way of reaching the Tower of London. There's more tips on seeing the sites in this piece I did for Lonely Planet.

Random Photo: Anti-Fun Bulgarian Town

2011-04-04T04:34:00.001-04:00

This Bulgarian town near the Black Sea is pretty much against all fun. Or at least adults, children, balls, homes and means of transport. I guess video games are cool?

Spring-Break Inspiration

2011-03-31T13:21:00.004-04:00

Here's my Guideposts interview about some inspiring destination ideas for spring break: Mexico, Kansas, using local sports as vehicle to meet locals, and helping communities recovering from natural disasters.

Travel Inflation > Inflation

2011-03-31T09:30:00.003-04:00

Anyone think that travel's not a savvy business?

Today, I read Ryan Air is levying passengers a couple pounds to pay for the airline's costs during snow storms last year. (I do love the word 'levy' though.) Of course airlines are making new fees into a critical part of their business plan. Last year, they made more for baggage and change fees (about $6 billion) than their overall profits ($5 billion).

A recent Northwest Herald article, though, noted the average cost for a travel day in 1950 as $13, including rooms and meals, which rose to $164 by 2008. That's a jump of 1161.5%, compared with a 794.6% rise in inflation over the same period. A imbalance of 46%.

Man.

Random Photo: Hanoi

2011-03-28T09:06:00.001-04:00

Hanoi turns 1001 this year. Let's hear it for Hanoi!

Travel Etiquette on WPIX

2011-03-24T09:10:00.003-04:00

Yesterday morning, I got up at 4:30am to get to New York's WPIX to talk travel etiquette, including a few places to go to pick your nose on vacation or why we should be made at pedestrian crosswalks here in the US.

Spring Travel & Blueberry Tips for ABC

2011-03-23T12:00:00.004-04:00

I talked five ways to relax this spring for ABC News Now. Yes, that's the Kentucky Derby rounding out the list.

Random Photo: Guatemalan Sloth

2011-03-21T06:32:00.000-04:00

Everyone should study Spanish. Everyone. And the place to go is Guatemala, where you can spend about $125 for room/board AND 20 hours of private instruction.

About a decade ago, I went to Quetzaltenango (Xela) and studied Spanish two weeks at Juan Sisay School. Better place for it than the more popular Antigua in my opinion -- Spanish-colonial town surrounded by volcanoes, witch villages, rum-drinking saints and hot springs. A far fewer gringos to tempt you back into English. The school, like many there, organizes volunteer programs to help local Mayan kids learn English. One night we put on a play for them, with the mixed-bag of foreigners playing the animals of the jungle. I was the sloth.

Favorite Sign (in the World)

2011-03-17T14:04:00.003-04:00

Sunday afternoon in Muswell Hill in North London. I went to a wine shop to get a gift bottle for the next day -- never did find one -- and found this sign outside an unexpectedly closed wine shop. It is the best sign of all time. Or should I say, 'the best sign of aPP time'?

Random Photo: Ray Manzarek!!

2011-03-14T05:38:00.000-04:00

Celebrating the year 2000! My friend Matthew Jackson and I pose with Ray Manzarek of the Doors (in background), who had just told a group of reasonable people that he couldn't believe Oscar-winning director Oliver Stone had been picked over him, a failed undergraduate arts student from the '60s, to direct the film 'The Doors.'

Random Photo: Favorite Sandwich

2011-03-07T06:42:00.005-05:00

I had the privilege recently to speak at David Farley's Restless Legs reading series at Lolita in the Lower East Side. I wrote something for the event, called "The Hopes & Dreams of Our Travel Generation's Contributions to the Betterment of Travel are Hinged on our Collective Ability, and Willingness, to Celebrate the Mundane along with the Marvellous."

Aka "Sandwiches."

It ended with my favorite sandwich:

I had it a few years ago, just as I was leaving BURMA. I was wrapping up a six-week research assignment in a country many said you shouldn’t go to because of the military government. I showed up at the Yangon airport with a $1 or so of unused kyat wadded in my pocket and an appetite to fill the three hours till my flight left for Singapore. The city had just opened a huge new airport – I zipped past immigration and found myself alone – just a sea of polished white tile and a dozen empty storefronts. No other travelers were there yet, and there was nothing to eat.

I saw a couple uniformed local women sweeping the spotless floor. One had thanakha tree bark-paste dotting her tanned cheeks in the image of perfect suns. I asked her if I could go out for something from the sidewalk vendor, visible from the departure lounge window. She immediately set her broom down and shuffled off in her flip-flops to ask, then shuffled back to say no, and quickly offered to retrieve something for me. It’s the sort of sweetness I found throughout the country.

Soon, she returned with a portable feast: a cup of tea, a bottled water, a bag of chips, and a Styrofoam container with two sad croissants, each stuffed with a cold hot dog. Sandwiches, YES!, I thought. I tried to give her my money, but even though the minimal cost was easily more than her day’s wage, she refused.

Random Photo: Victoria DJ (Transylvania)

2011-03-01T09:01:00.003-05:00

Victoria, Romania is a plain communist-era town with a stodgy old restaurant sporting the cutest DJ set up I've ever seen.

Travel Knock-Knock: Barcelona

2011-02-26T06:23:00.001-05:00

Knock knock!
Who's there?
Barcelona
Barcelona who?
Barcelona? NEVER go into bars-alona.

Is it OK to Blind RT?

2011-02-25T08:29:00.010-05:00

Twitterlife can be fun, distracting, sometimes useful -- and sometimes a bit less so. I sometimes wonder how many 'blind RTs' we see popping up -- meaning RTs to links that are never looked at, just passed on because they sound promising.

So I played a trick with this tweet yesterday:

The catch is that it's a fake. There is no story, or top 20 list. Just a link to You Got Rick Rolled, the immortal tribute to pop icon Rick Astley (I like the pie chart the best).

Seventy-five people clicked on the link and saw Rick in his glory (my apologies to all, in particular to Sarah Hutton who called me out on it). At the same time I got at least nine RTs on the link without comment, which reached up to 26,276 people.

Sorry guys, but I think you got RickRolled too.

76-Second Travel Show: 'Outtakes from Garfield Assassination Replica'

2011-02-22T20:23:00.004-05:00

Episode # 049

F E A T U R I N G * 1 4 3 * B O N U S * S E C O N D S

It's been one year since the '76-Second Travel Show' probed every alley of New York to find the most worthy presidential experience to have for a president's day weekend in the Big Apple: and NAILED IT (with this).

Chester A Arthur is one of two presidents (George Washington being the other) to take the oath in Manhattan. Arthur did so because a guy called Charles Guiteau went and shot James Garfield for no apparent reason (enigmatically self-proclaiming 'I'm the stalwart of stalwarts' as he squeezed his trigger, twice).

Time hasn't been forgiving to Arthur, a man who pronounced his middle name ('Alan') with mock-French twist ('Alain'), had something like 50 pairs of paints, and frankly wasn't much of a president. But his former home, at 123 Lexington Ave in Manhattan, is now an Indian spice shop -- and you can get a 'Chester Arthur' sandwich (well, if you ask for one) upstairs in his former bedroom.

To celebrate the one-year anniversary, the 76 team held a party with a couple of the reenactors from the 0:13 replica of James Garfield's shooting (he'd die two months later -- you really might not want to know the details of exactly why he died).

We also dug up, from the 76 archives, some outtakes from the original video.

Enjoy. And remember. And definitely go eat one of those sandwiches.

The original:

Random Photo: North Dakota Postcard '01

2011-02-21T05:20:00.001-05:00

I think we all should send a postcard in 2011. I used to more regularly. Here's one from my 2001 research trip of the US Great Plains for Lonely Planet -- sent to the LP staff in Oakland. Snippets on why the country's least-visited state deserved a longer look:

The proud CVB in Fargo is shaped like a grain elevator, gives free cookies and neglects to put a single attraction on its Fargo tourist map.
The capitol in Bismarck looks like a Stalinist school of dentistry.
Kev, the chef at Cowboy Cafe in Medora, - a completely round man - will sit down and talk with you for hours. Says 'dang' a lot.
There were more visitors at the world's largest holstein cow, at New Salem, than the state's great national park.
Fargo's SkyWalk looks like an outtake from a Scorpions video.

Interview: Ian Frazier on Siberia

2011-02-15T08:51:00.005-05:00

Ian Frazier spent about 17 years researching and writing 'Travels in Siberia,' about the same time Axl Rose took for 'Chinese Democracy' -- but with better results. Frazier's fascination for the forlorn and mythic, plus his humor, has always appealed to me. When I started as a Lonely Planet author, I picked put two destinations atop my author wish-list: the US Great Plains and Siberia. Two areas he's now written full books on.

I got the chance to meet and speak with him recently, about why he spent so much time in a place people usually avoid, and what exactly his phrase 'Russia-love' means. As he puts it, everyone has 'one country' -- a place they are instinctively drawn to and can't help it. For him, it's Russia.

What's yours?

Here's my book review on 'Travels in Siberia' for Lonely Planet.

Random Photo: Death of the Queens Igloo!

2011-02-14T06:38:00.005-05:00

It's not your typical day when you look out the window and see an igloo. 'Actually it's not an igloo,' its creator, Joe Gindoff, told me. 'It's a snow house. Igloos are made of ice.' Joe, my neighbor in Jackson Heights, Queens, told me he's never built one before, but the excess snow and time to wonder -- he recently lost his job -- gave him the opportunity. 'I sat and thought about it, then went out and did it.'

Local news picked up the story after Joe spent the night in the house -- or at least till 3am (I know the feeling; I gave up on Quebec City's Ice Hotel at 2:30am recently myself).

Alas, Sunday Gindoff took a pick-axe to his creation, knocking its roof in. With temperatures set to rise this week, so have concerns from neighbors over a potential hazard in the private garden area. He understood.

The 'igloo' -- or 'NYgloo' as he called it -- has already paid dividends for him. Gindoff has been contacted to help build a 'three ton snowman' at Bear Mountain upstate. Sometimes just doing stuff -- like building an 'igloo' -- beats polishing off a new resume.

76-Second Travel Show: 'Does Saying No Make You a Travel Wimp?'

2011-02-08T10:52:00.003-05:00

Episode #048

F E A T U R I N G * 7 1 * B O N U S * S E C O N D S

I've jumped from Soviet aircraft, thrown lead weights at dynamite in Bogota, and even been on a horse in upstate New York. But in Quebec City, I found something I just couldn't do: a night at the Ice Hotel.

Does saying 'no' make you a travel wimp?

Random Photo(s) of the Week: Green Bay Forever

2011-02-07T06:36:00.004-05:00

If you grow up in Oklahoma, you have to fight the urge to like the Dallas Cowboys. It happened for me, early, on a Sunday after an Oklahoma loss to Texas the day before, when I saw gloating Texas fans at a Cowboys game, playing up the TV cameras and pointing to their Longhorn gear. And I've hated the Cowboys ever since.

Who to like in the NFL then? Easy, the Green Bay Packers. A throw-back team, unabashedly wearing green-and-yellow, not owned but run by a wayward Wisconsin town of 100,000. It's practically the anti-NFL team. Plus they have a history of beating Dallas.

The last time Green Bay won a Super Bowl, I woke early -- like 3am -- to get to a Saigon sports bar playing the game live. The owner didn't understand how to throw a Super Bowl Party well, and had a cover band from the Philippines onhand to play 'Hotel California' DURING the game. Angst of bleary-eyed ex-pats encourage the band to stick with a halftime performance.

Ten years ago I visited Green Bay with friends Chip Dalby and Tom Caw. We saw Brett Favre play, Brett Favre Drive, ate brauts, threw some pre-game balls, and watched Favre failed to rally the Pack against the Chicago Bears.

Doesn't matter. Packers are the anti-Cowboys. And more.

Curling in Quebec City

2011-02-06T07:15:00.000-05:00

Quebec City's famed Winter Carnival is underway, but I began my visit recently not at its ice sculptures, tube slides, skating rinks or 'caribou' (hot wine) stands. Instead I went straight from my hotel to the 98th Bonspiel, a curling championship held at the Jacques Cartier Curling Club. There I'd meet Serge -- wearing a tassled hat and red sweater filled with commemorative pins from past Bonspiels -- who bought me beer and chocolate, then explained some of the game.

'It's a SOCIAL event,' he said with a deep Quebecois French accent. 'If you wait, maybe you can try.'

Curling's a game that's sometimes seen with a smirk. Apparently Scottish in origin, it's only been a part of the Olympics since 1998 and is getting a bit more serious looks since last year's coverage from Vancouver's Olympics.

I'd never seen it in person. Teams were playing side by side on four 'sheets,' or lanes. They were from around Canada, and also the US and Switzerland: mostly gray haired guys, some with wool sweaters with curling themes stretched taut over front guts.

Ted, an English speaker with inoffensive bad breath from Montreal, noticed me struggling to comprehend and helped explain the strategy. 'People think it's a mistake when the first stone stops short of the house' -- or ringed target area. 'That's what you want to do: guard your house.'

I pretended to understand. On sheet one, the team with the red stones overshot the house on their first try. Ted shook his head, then turned away. He already knew they were going to lose the match. And, soon enough, they did.

Before long, Bonspiel 2011 was wrapping up, and I did get to try. Serge introduced me to Marcel, a solid Quebecois man speaking zero English and wearing a look like he might enjoy seeing a Yank fall on their face. We walked onto the coarse ice, and Marcel demonstrated twice, flawlessly, how to lean onto the ice, push off, and gently send the stone down the sheet. Usually you wear a special shoe, and a soul to glide on the ice, coarser than a skating rink. I'd be wearing my own.

I didn't fall, nor did I glide, or make much of an impact with my attempts. But back by the bar, the fellow curlers appreciated my willingness to join the club. One goateed curler from Regina, Saskatchewan -- whom I earlier had spotted high-fiving a teammate and bragging 'the last rock of mine was dead perfect, eh?' -- shared the secret: 'Years of practice, and years of after-parties. Mostly this is just social. We play to win, sure but we're friends on the ice.'

I want more friends on the ice too.

By the way, you can just show up and probably get lessons. But you may have to buy your own chocolate and beer.

Feature: '72 Moskvitch Roadtrip in Bulgaria

2011-02-04T13:41:00.003-05:00

We all have dreams. I lived one of mine, buying and driving an old Soviet baby-blue car up/down the Bulgarian Black Sea Coast. I wrote about it for the January edition of Lonely Planet magazine (here's the link to the story).

I'll post more photos soon.

On the Radio: San Francisco's KGO

2011-02-01T15:46:00.003-05:00

Saturday morning I spoke about Quebec City and the best places to go in the USA in 2011 on the super travel show on Radio KGO in San Francisco. If you're interested, my fun begins at the 27:30 mark.

Random Photo of the Week: Enter Nebraska

2011-01-31T07:54:00.002-05:00

For many people, Nebraska is one of those states in the way. Between cities and mountains, here and there. But when I first drove into Nebraska, it meant something. Growing up in Oklahoma, Nebraska was a fierce yet respected football rival. So crossing the Kansas-Nebraska line for the first time, I leaned forward in my car set -- itching to note, survey, savor all the differences that come from something as artificial as a random state boundary not based on geography.

Attention soon turned to something else: the massive midnight cloud moving in from the west.

I grew up in tornado alley, but the only time I've been scared was that drive into Nebraska. As hail started to fall sideways across the deserted highway, I kept moving forward. Should I stop out here? A radio DJ was yelling, 'This is not a test. We under a severe tornado warning. Get someplace safe.' I finally reached a small town, and pulled behind a small dental office and waited for the storm to pass wondering if Okies were really welcome or not.

Interview on 76-Second Travel Show

2011-01-26T09:17:00.002-05:00

Video blogger and Nova Scotian Cailin O'Neil of Travel Yourself was kind enough to ask me questions about the '76-Second Travel Show.' I talk about why I went '76,' where and how I got the travel bug, and share some traditionally bad advice on how to make videos yourself. Fun!

Here's the full interview.

Random Photo of the Week: Balltown, Iowa

2011-01-24T13:19:00.004-05:00

Several years ago I found my favorite urinal-wall art of all time: a little pen-drawn map of Iowa, its full squat shape for all to see, with the simple block lettering: 'IOWA.' Next to it someone had scrawled, with an arrow, 'Idiots Out Walking Around.' Wish I had taken a photo.

I did take a photo outside Dubuque, Iowa, of a portrait of Iowa's overlooked Mississippi River valley landscape at Balltown, a high up village with a legendary chicken shack. Apparently this painting was made, in exchange for a meal or two, by 'traveling gypsies' half a century ago -- then lost under wallpaper. It was rediscovered shortly before my visit in 2001, while updating Lonely Planet's USA guide.

Brooklyn's Historic Subway Tunnel Tours Close

2011-01-11T12:36:00.007-05:00

Bob Diamond is a classic New Yorker. Snubbing naysayers to discover, at age 19, the world's oldest subway tunnel, under Brooklyn's Atlantic Avenue in 1980. Two years later Bob started leading tour down there -- raw tours, often peppered with fiery jabs at city officials. (I enjoyed one in July.)

Last month the city closed them down, alas. Hopefully they'll come back.

Here's my story for Lonely Planet.

On the Weather Channel

2011-01-08T21:12:00.003-05:00

Friday was fun. I got to talk travel -- or more precisely what to do to not be stranded at the airport when snow flurries fly -- on the Weather Channel. Here are the two segments: this one and that one.

Then I had tacos.

76-Second Travel Show: 'Sound Challenge'

2011-01-03T12:58:00.004-05:00

Episode #047
F E A T U R I N G * 6 9 * B O N U S * S E C O N D S

Maybe the question for travel in 2011 isn't what you'll see, but what you'll hear?

Here's my defense of closing your eyes for Lonely Planet.

Robust Christmas II

2010-12-23T12:01:00.005-05:00

Last year, especially for Christmas, the 76-Second Travel Show tracked a surprising surge in the usage of the word 'robust' on both sides of the Atlantic:

A year later, we're noticing the trend in the US has continued its spike upward.

The New York Times rose from over 900 usages of 'robust' in 2009 to over 1400 (1406 as of Dec 23, including online references), while the UK's Guardian dropped slightly to 1885.

Does that say the UK is over robust, while the US is just getting started?

Either way, 76 Studios is looking forward to a very robust 2011.

Most-Inspiring Travel Destinations

2010-12-17T13:27:00.002-05:00

I recently spoke with Guideposts about the most inspiring destinations/themes for travel. Yes, I squeezed on sports and, my ultimate favorite destination, home after a long trip:

76-Second Travel Show: 'What's the Harvard/Yale of Travel?'

2010-12-02T15:35:00.003-05:00

Episode #046
F E A T U R I N G * 8 5 * B O N U S * S E C O N D S

Those who think the Red Sox/Yankees are the best rivalry in US sports ought to spend more time around college football. Considering the numbers of times baseball teams square off each year, and -- then -- how meaningless each game really is, nothing beats college football.

Particularly when it's two teams playing for nothing but pride. Harvard and Yale were, historically, instrumental in CREATING the sport of football. Unlike the big BCS teams, they have no polls, no bowls, no championships looming -- just a regular-season schedule capped with one of the biggest unseen rivalries in the country.

Sports in general is an underrated way of connecting with locals anywhere you go. And I found the same joy from mingling in the whirlwind of overcoats and scarves at Harvard Stadium a week-and-a-half ago. It was fun. And different from games back in Oklahoma. No merch stands, programs were free, and there were a lot of people in overcoats and scarves. One woman, a proud Crimson fan, told me, 'The boys sing 10,000 Men of Harvard in the locker room after each win.' So?, I thought. 'First in English, then in Latin.'

Football players who sing in Latin? Definitely not in Oklahoma anymore.

Talking 2011 on ABC News Now

2010-12-01T10:52:00.001-05:00

Yesterday I appeared on ABC News Now to discuss some of the lists made in Lonely Planet's new Best in Travel 2011. Talked about Albania's Ottoman-era houses, Japan's $40 guesthouses, the notion of 'communism travel' and re-enactments from the upcoming 150th anniversary of the Civil War (here's my video on how they decide who dies first). Yes, I squeezed out a Will Ferrell movie idea and (not unrelated) Teutonic Knights.

'76-Second Travel Show' on CNN (Sorda)

2010-11-24T10:47:00.001-05:00

76-Second Travel Show: 'What's Worse: Airport Scanners or the Shoe Deal?'

2010-11-18T09:38:00.009-05:00

Episode #045

F E A T U R I N G * 3 5 * B O N U S * S E C O N D S

Everyone's mad about the new X-rated airport scanners. Some groups are rallying the 812 million annual air passengers in the states to opt out of the scanners on November 24, the busy day before Thanksgiving. Opting out means pat downs -- which are more detailed than they used to be. Recently, one guy faces a $10,000 civil suit for saying he'd have TSA agents arrested if they touched his junk.

All of this cannot compare with the single greatest energy-wasting project of all time: taking on/off shoes at airport checks.

At 0:36 to take them on/off -- per a 76-Second Travel Show sample test -- this security measure equates 923 years of combined personal effort to show some sock at TSA security checks... each year. That means every year, air passengers in the US are spending more time shedding shoes than it took to build the Empire State Building (about seven million man hours, or 799 years of personal effort).

TSA rep Sharon Horowitz told me by email they're trying to find ways to axe the shoe checks. But, she says, the scanners -- 385 units in 68 airports, a cost of nearly $70 million apparently -- do a better job of detecting 'metallic and non-metallic threats,' like stuff in shoes.

Richard Reid, are you laughing?

This video features 'Give Peace a Chance' by Dean Reed: one of the most remarkable cover versions of any song recorded behind the Iron Curtain.

76-Second Travel Show: 'How to Time Travel'

2010-10-29T13:10:00.004-04:00

Episode #044
F E A T U R I N G * 6 4 * B O N U S * S E C O N D S

Did you see that Charlie Chaplin video yet? I like how George Clark, the director, says three times he's screened it for 'about 100 people,' calls the woman in question 'butch' a few times, starts with blatant self promotion, and -- a director -- rambles on way too long and shoots his deal in bad lighting.

Considering that, AND that it's the 25th anniversary of a more relevant time-travel (and Huey Lewis) vehicle Back to the Future, it's time to weigh in.

Can you time travel? Is it better to go back or forward? And what when would physicist Paul Davies, with a time machine, head to?

My ranking of the Charlie Chaplin traveler, out of five possible clocks:

76-Second Travel Show: 'Monopoly Travel to Atlantic City'

2010-10-05T11:05:00.003-04:00

Episode #043
F E A T U R I N G * 1 8 2* B O N U S * S E C O N D S

Question: Can a Monopoly board be used as a guidebook?

Why yes! In Atlantic City, it can!

Parker Brothers first published Monopoly 75 years ago this year -- it began in various forms decades before as 'Landlord's Game.' Some people don't realize that the color-coded properties encircling continuous layout -- eg Connecticut Avenue, St James Place, Marvin Gardens, Park Place -- are based on real ones in New Jersey's famed seaside beach destination. And with the exception of one -- St Charles Place -- all can be visited, and doing so (sometimes) leads to Atlantic City's best survivors from past-gone eras.

I followed the board around Atlantic City recently. Several locals independently advised that the Baltimore Grill on Atlantic Avenue served 'the best pizza in the world.' It didn't -- and didn't have a grill either -- but I loved the '50s-era throwback. Meanwhile, at the corner of Vermont Ave & Pacific Ave, I peppered the keys of an antique pianola in a 19th-century lighthouse, now surrounded by housing blocks.

But the best stop? Easily St James Place, home to a classic pub and hotel at the Inn at the Irish Pub? Most memorable stay in an American hotel I've had. Like walking into a Little Rascals set, with picks from local estate sales that date to the Depression, lacy curtains blowing in AC-free rooms, slanted floors and -- in my room at least -- an embroidered Norwegian scene hanging opposite an inspirational quote taped onto a paddle.

Vienna's Top 1: Artful Pencil Displays

2010-09-24T08:56:00.011-04:00

I've been calling the act of tying a sweater around one's neck, or draping a coat over one's shoulders as 'Vienna style' ever since I spent a few too many days there on a four-day visit 18 years ago.

I had ended up Vienna on a Eurail-free trip across Eastern Europe 18 years ago. I had come in via Bratislava and expected to see Mozart's wig then go onto Budapest, but trains OUT of Western Europe were inordinately more expensive than those going in. So I became a Viennese prisoner to my drained budget. Sticking around the hostel, eating their free meals, throwing fallen fruit around a park with two miserable Polish brothers in the same situation. I could just barely stay, but didn't have the money to leave.

Someone get this to Don Henley for lyric fodder!

I did come away with a couple things: One, Vienna is ridiculously gorgeous. Two, if you're going to spend money on anything, don't pick the Freud museum over the Kunsthistorisches Museum (my mistake for my lone museum splurge).

And three, the Viennese tended to employ a rather curious fashion sense. Many men wore scarves in late summer, this I accepted with relish. But nearly as many wore jackets hanging draped over their shoulders, with each blase arm danging nearly out of view beneath. Stubbornly resistant to the notion of sleeving.

I unexpectedly found myself in Vienna for half a day yesterday. Europe airport strikes led to three missed Sofia-bound air connections and the night off, finally, in Vienna. And it converted me. I'm a fan. I loved my after-dark walk around the gorgeous center, popping into the Fake Art Museum to learn how one forger ended up with his head bashed-in by a shovel (and how one Matisse fake may be real -- a 100 euro investment that could yield one million more), having some ice cream and beer, and stopping at a cafe that didn't have sandwiches but could make me 'bread with cheese, ham and vegetables on top.'

The top real highlight, for me, was peeking into closed shops with artful displays of pencils propped up at geometrically pleasing angles with the tiniest of nails.

But there was another 'take-away,' as they say in conference-table culture. Eighteen years later, I saw it again and again: jackets worn over shoulders, arms dangling out of sight, everlasting 'Vienna style.'

Thank you Vienna. Thank you European airport strikes. Thank you travel!

76-Second Travel Show: 'Are the English the Champs of Travel?'

2010-09-17T15:55:00.006-04:00

Episode #042
F E A T U R I N G * 5 0 * B O N U S * S E C O N D S

It has to be said. Stack'm up: Graham Greene, Eric Newby, Jan Morris, Colin Thubron, even Charles Dickens and Robert Louis Stevenson in one corner; Mark Twain, Paul Theroux, Bill Bryson, uh John Steinbeck (considering this week marks the 50th anniversary of his 'Travels with Charley' trip), maybe Elizabeth Gilbert in the other? The English, the former group, will win every time -- at travel writing.

What can the Americans do to catch up?

Why We Travel (Flashcard Version)

2010-09-09T08:08:00.001-04:00

As co-host of the TBEX NYC event tonight, I debuted a theory: all trips can be broken down into one or more of six primary reasons why we travel. Making up, like primary colors, all blends of trips we take. A periodic table of travel elements.

Here they are, in portable flashcard version:

We travel to communicate. Uncle Sedgwick moved to Oregon? Go see him.

Like relaxing with bad TV, we sometimes travel to veg out -- on a beach, in a forest, on a mountain. To forget the muck of ennui our lives have become. Or a job. Or a relationship. Or a college football score.

We travel to 'tick off' a bucket list of dream places, experiences around the world. Like the Eiffel Tower, Taj Mahal or St Louis' Gateway Arch.

A natural partner in 'tick-off' travelers is showing off. That comes when we pick up experiences solely for talking points to bore friends and family members when we get back. Eg 'Dessert? Did you just say dessert? Reminds me of the Sahara -- I went on a camel safari there in '98...'

[Note: Andrew Zimmern of the Travel Channel's Bizarre Foods actually stole -- with permission -- this 'Show-Off' flashcard at TBEX.]

The flip-side of showing off is what we personally absorb when traveling -- when we travel to learn. Of different cultures, languages, biting habits of strange gray dogs.

But food is biggest, for many -- and often for me. I sometimes call those monuments, museums, markets and parks we visit on trips as the 'space between meals.' Often, it's the food that anchors the trip. Even when the pizza comes with ketchup applied in fat dollops.

Football is back!

2010-09-03T08:11:00.001-04:00

College football is back, baseball and summer are fading -- isn't life great? To celebrate, here's a 2007 video demonstration of America's best sport

Rush's Toronto (Under Construction)

2010-08-31T14:57:00.006-04:00

Just back from GoMedia, a Canadian tourism conference in Toronto. I squeaked out a little free time to follow Rush -- the bronze medal winner in total gold and platinum records (after the Beatles and Stones), though completely snubbed by the Rock'n'Roll Hall of Fame, which found a place for the Hollies.

More to come, but meanwhile, please enjoy a still of my serious conversation with Dave Glover, aka 'the kid in the Subdivisions video,' along with the 'high school halls' of L'Amoreaux Collegiate Institute, where the video was shot in 1982.

I am delighted by travel.

76-Second Travel Show: 'What is a Travel Animal?'

2010-08-19T17:12:00.006-04:00

Episode #041
F E A T U R I N G * 7 9 * B O N U S * S E C O N D S

Animals are going berserk of late: whales jumping, like Simon Le Bon, aboard private yachts in South Africa; bears hijacking Toyotas and ramming them into trees. Are they protesting our travel? Or just trying to tag along?

I've tried to promote 'travel animals' before -- such as the walrus, the pig and the prairie dog. But the notion has changed for me. It's time to refocus toward animals who travel, not just animals to look at.

Some will liken the best 'travel animal' to those who travel the longest distances, like the arctic tern which travels the equivalent of three trips to the moon over its life. But distances, just like ticked-box countries visited, doesn't equate to travel value. Instead, I'm looking for are animals that combine relaxation, fun with curiosity and escape.

We have one suggestion. Do you have any candidates?

If bored, visit the full 76-Second Travel Show archive.

Avoid the One-Pillar Pagoda

2010-08-17T15:45:00.007-04:00

It's fun debating friendliest, prettiest, ugliest place in this world of travel. But some negative superlatives can strike me as particularly careless or hollow -- particularly when based on a quick, solitary visit.

It's what I call the 'one-pillar pagoda.'

No opinions should be built on the back of a lone observation or experience. But often they are. I can't say the number of times I've heard swipes at Vietnam -- 'greedy loud locals ripping off tourists' -- from visitors who stuck with the deeply rutted backpacker trail from cafe to cafe, travel agent to travel agent. Go a block or two in any direction -- away from the fly-paper tout zones of banana pancakes and Internet cafes -- it's another story.

Alas.

I fight this urge to demean or overly sell a place all the time. In fact, one of the key things I've learned from updating a couple dozen Lonely Planet guidebooks has been to NOT trust yourself. At least not always. Particular giddiness or fortune in meeting/knowing locals that connect you to a place, or the presence of an untimely headache can greatly alter how one sees -- and talks of -- a destination for years to come.

This same principle, of course, works in life too. One-pillar structures exist (like the Hanoi pagoda above), but there's a reason most buildings are built on at least four supports.

How to Fly Right

2010-08-11T08:59:00.003-04:00

A few years ago, on a flight from Magadan to Vladivostok, Russia, a couple thin, well-dressed Russians in suits looked across the aisle to me, one shook a vodka bottle and asked 'you drink with us' -- no question mark intended.

After a few shots on the flight, we landed and I watched the two exit first and proceed to immigration, where they turned on their heels and began checking documentation. After clearing me, a trio with vodka breath, they offered me a ride into town in their SUV.

Never know who you'll meet on planes.

It was a rather different story for the ex-JetBlue flight attendant Steven Slater, who is getting his fair share of high-fives around the travel community for sliding into airline history.

Here's my take on how NOT to enrage your flight attendant for CNN.com today.

The photo above is of a cargo plane that wrecked in Manitoba; no one was killed.

76-Second Travel Show's Greatest Hits

2010-08-02T10:48:00.008-04:00

It's self-indulgent and unnecessary, but to commemorate the first 40 episodes of the '76-Second Travel Show,' I'm doing it anyway: 76-Second Travel Show's Greatest Hits.

PUTTING THE SYSTEM ON TRIAL
Manhattan Bridge's 100th Birthday

I'm still steamed that the city celebrated the centennial of this iconic, overlooked bridge two months ahead of time because, essentially, the weather's better. (Some videomakers didn't mind.) The 76 had other ideas -- going deep into the New Year's Eve snow, and commissioning an original song, to celebrate the bridge ON ITS ACTUAL BIRTHDAY. Because that's just the sort of birthday befitting a bridge like the Manhattan. And yes, we did clean up all that confetti.

BEST SUMMER SMACKDOWN/MULTI-MEDIA MIX
Love for Cold Travel

I've long last track of how many 'unreasonable' days -- or sightings of pants-staining butt sweat on subways -- we've had to endure this summer in New York. All I know is that winter is way underrated as a time to travel (or explore your own home). Media-wise in this ep, we were able to get in hand-drawn signs, telephone calls, a couple interviews and random Bulgarian footage in this one.

MOST HITS
Is San Francisco Better than NYC?

By far the most controversial (and viewed -- with over 10,000 clicks), this episode's simple question sent San Franciscans and New Yorkers onto the defense. One recent YouTube commenter lashed out, 'Is this guy for real?' Actually the SF/NY question remains is open-ended, never answered. There really is no 'better' in travel. And the video never claims it.

BEST 13-SECOND REENACTMENT
Chester Arthur's Pants

It didn't do well -- a trifle of exposure compared with some -- but the 13-second reenactment of 'the Shooting of an Ohioan President' remains my personal favorite moment in all 40 episodes (or any aspect of my career). AND, I think, the fun fact that you can order Lebanese sandwiches in Chester Arthur's former bedrooms (and that he had a pants fetish) is worth the price of admission. (No, I'm NOT the presidential assassin; that was handled by John M Whitaker.)

BEST REWORKED BILLY JOEL LYRICS
Billy Joel's Long Island

It willfully defies the 76-second limit by the longest shot imaginable -- it's nearly 7.6 minutes -- but following Billy Joel's lyrics across mid-way Long Island, with a fun group of contest winners including BrooklynNomad, led to meeting some unforgettable characters and meeting Julie Chang of Fox 5 NYC. More importantly, I'll never hear 'Scenes from an Italian Restaurant' quite the same way again.

UN-MADE MOVIE PROXY/OVERUSE OF TELEPHONE
Vikings vs Pirates

Hollywood refuses to ask a key hypothetical question of our past -- who'd win in a fight, Vikings or pirates? -- travel, once again, comes to the rescue with Viking/pirate sites chipping in.

COOLEST THING I'VE DONE
Goes to Sesame Street

I first learned of 'uptown' and 'brownstones' on Sesame Street. Finally I got to visit the source. And to quote Ciccone Youth, it felt like seeing New York for the first time.

BEST FAKE RUSSIAN/SWISS ACCENT
$10 Luge Lessons

Anticipating an mass mockery of luge during the Olympics -- and a few days before the tragic death of one luger in warm-ups -- I went Ponce de Leon on a question NBC's exhaustive Olympic coverage over the decades never bothered to ask: where can you luge? Turns out Michigan rules the day. And, at ten bucks, the best travel deal outside of DC's free museums. So 76 HQ is happy. (Though we're all still waiting an answer regarding Apolo Ono's inexcusable 'soul stripe.')

QUICKEST PRODUCTION
Is Marco Polo overrated?

In the very first episode, the 76 template was conceptualized/focus-grouped/shot/edited/released in about 25 elapsed minutes, including artwork of the signs. Really don't want to confess how long the Billy Joel one took.

76-Second Travel Show: 'The Real Orlando'

2010-07-28T12:53:00.006-04:00

Episode #040
F E A T U R I N G * 6 0 * B O N U S * S E C O N D S

I met up with a number of travel insiders recently and Orlando came up. 'Awful city.' 'Hate that place.' And around the circle went a chorus of dismissive nods of approval.

It's an easy reaction to a place famed for amusement parks (and I've shared it at times), but travel usually knows better. And when I went last month -- to attend the opening of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter -- I stayed in town, and carved out time to see the city, and ask locals what the 'real Orlando' is. People like Bob Kealing, who wrote 'Kerouac in Florida,' about the beat writer's surprising connection with the Sunshine State. (Read Thomas Swick's excellent take on Kerouac's Orlando.)

And I liked it. A lot actually.

Favorites:

* 'Little Saigon' (or ViMi) around Mills and Colonial has excellent cheap Vietnamese restaurants -- as good as any I've had outside Vietnam.
* The 'naive art' of Earl Cunningham at the Mennello Museum, who painted scenes to scale of his interest (houses and people usually very small, birds very very BIG).
* The wee 'Milk District' at Robinson and Bumby has a handful of bars/eateries (great beer selection at the Social Chameleon) in the shadow of a milk processing plant.

Oh, and the Simpsons ride at Universal -- the best of all time.

Robert meets Robert Verdi

2010-07-21T15:06:00.002-04:00

Yesterday I met with Robert Verdi, fashion/jewelry expert of the Robert Verdi Show, to talk travel and travel fashion (I lost the nerve to bring in some of my regrettable Wrights Brothers-esque travel pants) as well as the Professor on Gilligan's Island and Robert's Travel Twitter party 7-8pm Thursday (EST) -- you can follow it at #rvtips on Twitter.