Tag Archives: Indonesia

the IBIT Travel Digest 1.27.13

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The good, the bad and the bizarre in the world of travel

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DANCING THROUGH CUSTOMS
One of the fringe benefits of writing a travel blog is that you can make some great friends doing great work. One such friend of mine is Renee King, who publishes A View to a Thrill.

In her most recent installment, she gives us the 4-1-1 on of the US government’s trusted traveler programs that can seriously speed you through the Customs process upon your return to the United States. It’s called “Global Entry” and here’s what Renee had to say about it:

“Originally created to target frequent international travelers, the U.S. Global Entry program has been a virtual god-send for travelers who want a fast and secure way of skipping the lines altogether when re-entering the United States.”

To pick up all the details on “Global Entry,” check out Renee’s article here. And then bookmark it. You’ll want to keep this one handy.

Anyone who doesn’t “get” the importance of this program has never walked/stumbled/staggered off a jumbo jet with about 300 other exhausted souls after a transoceanic flight lasting 12 hours or longer, only to queue up in a Customs line…with the passengers of two, three or four other jumbo jets, all doing the same thing you are.

I have. I don’t recommend it.

If such a trip is a one-in-a-lifetime deal for you, then you may not need this program, especially when it costs $100. You’ll also have to make an appointment to be interviewed, electronically fingerprinted and see if you qualify for the program — and frankly, not everyone will.

But when you walk off that plane in a jet-lagged fog and breeze by all those folks suffering in line, you’ll swear it was the best time and money you ever spent on travel.

And if you make more than, say, three or four globe-girdling flights per year, you need this.

To apply for the Global Entry program, start here.

ALL ABOARD…THE NIGHT TRAIN
If it’s true that, in the words of the old Amtrak commercial, “there’s something about a train, then there’s something even more captivating about an overnight “sleeper” train.

Watching the sun set from the privacy of your own compartment, then bedding down for the night with a window full of stars and awaking the next morning in a different city — or a different country — is unforgettable.

It’s also practical. A sleeper train combines transportation and lodging in one. Instead of losing a day traveling between points, you arrive at your destination early the next morning.

It’s not cheap, but a private compartment often includes all your on-board meals, as well as other perks unavailable to Coach passengers, all of which makes the sleeper experience worth considering.

London’s Daily Telegraph newspaper has considered it at length, and compiled a slideshow of what they consider to be the top ten overnight sleeper train runs in Europe, including one between Europe (London) and Africa (Marrakech, Morocco).

Paris-Barcelona? Paris-Berlin? London-Penzance? Yeah, I could happily do any of those.

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AFRICAN FASHION MADE EASY
Not many folks on this side of the Atlantic are aware of it, but Africa has developed quite the fashion scene. We’re talking high-end threads for men and women from high-profile designers from the length and breadth of the Mother Continent.

Until a few years ago, your best shot at checking out this vibrant and growing fashion world was to fly to one or more of perhaps seven African cities:

  • Lagos, Nigeria
  • Nairobi, Kenya
  • Cape Town, South Africa
  • Johannesburg, South Africa
  • Dakar, Senegal
  • Luanda, Angola

And if you want to get a feel for the sources of inspiration that drive these African fashions, that still might be the best idea.

However, you do have alternatives. Lots of them, in fact.

New York City, Los Angeles and Dallas both annually hosts African Fashion Weeks. But if you feel like giving your fashion trip some international flavor — with a bit less expense and a lot less flight time — there’s the Black Fashion Week in Paris and the Africa Fashion Week London, now in its third year.

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And now, here’s The Digest:

AIR
from Business Insider via Yahoo
A Germany-based air safety monitoring group lists the world’s ten most dangerous airlines over the last 30 years. Read with some large grains of salt.

from eTurbo News
An Indonesian airline adopts new Sukhoi Superjet 100 airliners from Russia. The reason: They can operate from the country’s short runways.

from NBC News
Southwest Airlines is betting that you’ll be willing to pay $40 extra to board their planes early. Would you?

from eTurbo News
Ethiopian Airlines cuts flights from Addis Ababa to Europe.

LAND

from Travel Weekly
A heavy late-December snowfall has the skiing looking good at America’s ski resorts.

from The Telegraph (London UK)
What do you get when you take an Amtrak train between Toronto and New York? A 12-hour rail cruise through US history and some of North America’s most gorgeous scenery.

from Forbes via Yahoo
Can you measure a country’s happiness? The Legatum Institute of London says it can, and it’s produced a list of the world’s ten happiest nations. And no, the United States is nowhere in the top ten.

from Time
Has snowboarding lost its mojo?

SEA
from Cruise Industry News
More evidence of the cruise industry’s growing tilt toward Asia: Princess Cruises to homeport a second cruise ship, the Diamond Princess, in Japan.

from Cruise Critic
For those of you dying to escape the frigid winter, there are six cruise ships sailing in warm waters that nearly always have cabins offered at a discount.

from Cruise Industry News
The upscale cruise line Silversea plans to offer shorter (and thus cheaper) cruises in Northern Europe and the Mediterranean.

from Cruise Industry News
As cruises go, this one’s the ultimate icebreaker. Hapag-Lloyd Cruises is planning an August cruise of the Northwest Passage fron Greenland to Alaska on one of its expedition ships, the Hanseatic. You don’t often see the words “expedition” and “5-star” in the same sentence.

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AFRICA
from Reuters
You might want to hold off on that Cairo vacation a little longer. Things are getting hectic — and deadly — again in Egypt.

from al Jazeera
Museum in Mali trying to protect some of the country’s historic artifacts from the threat of destruction by radical Muslim insurgents.

from eTurbo News
British Airways pulls out of Tanzania, and Emirates is the first airline to step into the void.

from The Telegraph (London UK)
Tourism officials in Egypt report that foreign visits are up, but not as much as expected.

from eTurbo News
Ethiopia turning to China, India and Russia as potential new tourism markets.

AMERICAS
from the Huffington Post
George Hobica says Albuquerque NM has been overshadowed by Santa Fe, but it deserves a closer look. Especially if you’re a fan of beer, road trips and under-the-radar cool.

from Travel Weekly
Want a shot at some warm winter weather and a whiff of that new hotel smell? Start saving your coins and circle Dec. 2014 on your calendar. That’s the the 1,000-room $1 billion Baha Mar casino resort is set to open its doors.

from the Chicago Tribune
If you’re a baseball junkie, a visit to Chicago’s historic Wrigley Field is something close to a religious pilgrimage. Now, the Sheraton hotel chain is planning to put up a boutique hotel directly across the street from the old ballpark. Think they’ll pt bleachers on the roof?

from Reuters via NBCNews
More flights and a weaker dollar have combined to create record-setting tourism in Hawaii.

ASIA/PACIFIC
from BootsnAll
Southeast Asia is a great destination for rail travel.

from China Daily
The dispute between China and Japan over the Senkaku (or if you’re Chinese, Diaoyu) Islands is throwing cold water on tourism between the two countries.

from SFGate.com
Walking in the path of samurai. Scenic medieval walkways in Japan.

from The Guardian (London UK)
What would you see on a 40-mile walk across a city of 30 million souls? Marcel Theroux gives us his answers from his trek across Tokyo, the first of a series of walks across the largest cities on Earth.

EUROPE
from ABC News via Yahoo
Welcome to County Kerry in southwest Ireland, where drunk driving is legal. And no, that’s not a typo.

from eTurbo News
Ukraine’s largest airline, AeroSvit, goes belly up, stranding hundreds of passengers in the process.

from The Guardian (London UK)
It wasn’t that long ago that the term “luxury hostel” might have been the ultimate oxymoron in travel especially in Europe. It’s fair to say that things have changed. A lot. SLIDESHOW

the IBIT Travel Digest 1.14.13

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The good, the bad and the bizarre in the world of travel

Southwest Airline Boeing 737

Southwest Airlines Boeing 737 landing in San Diego | © Greg Gross

LOOKING ELSEWHERE, LOOKING HOMEWARD
Last weekend’s Los Angeles Travel & Adventure Show in Long Beach was equal parts eye opener and reminder.

Japan, still pushing hard to rebuild its tourism after the earthquake/tsunami/radiation disaster of 2011, was the biggest country sponsor this year, with all kinds of intriguing offers, including one that never would’ve occurred to me — anime tourism.

Expect to hear more about that later on IBIT.

Turkey also had a major presence this year, as did Indonesia. Baja California destinations — from Cabo San Lucas at the peninsula’s southern tip to Tijuana, Rosarito Beach, Ensenada, Tecate and Mexicali, also were representing well, and that was good for this old Baja hand to see.

But the destination that reality hooked my attention this year was Malaysia.

How many of us ever seriously consider Malaysia as a place to visit? How many of even know where Malaysia is? Well, somebody knows, because it’s the tenth most popular tourism destination in the world.

And in this case, getting there might actually be half the fun. Its national air carrier, Malaysia Airlines, gets a five-star rating from Skytrax for its passenger service, one of only six airlines in the world to be rated that highly.

At the other end of the travel scale, and literally on the other side of the floor, there were a lot of exhibitors touting outdoor and adventure travel in places like California’s Sequoia country and Yosemite National Park. It reminded me that we have some world-class attractions right here at home that we too often take for granted.

IBIT says: Watch for more on all of this in the coming days.

DREAMLINER DIFFICULTIES
How’s this for a reality TV show: You’ve got this hot new jet, state of the art, but there are so many problems building it was three years late arriving. But now it’s finally here and flying all over the world and everything’s great and…

Wait, say what? Electrical fires? Fuel leaks?

Welcome to the very real world of Boeing and its new 787 Dreamliner.

The Federal Aviation Administration is ordering a safety review after those problems surfaced aboard Japan Air Lines 787s in recent days.

Such reports can’t help but make travelers nervous, especially those flying across oceans. However, this CNN report puts it all in perspective.

Bottom line: all new planes have teething problems. The Boeing 707 and 747 did back in the day, as do Airbus aircraft, most recently its A380 super-jumbo. When the problems arise, you jump on them, as the FAA is doing, fix them, keep an eye on them…and move on. We should do as well maintaining our cars.

Still, it does bear watching, which IBIT will be doing.

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TITANIC SAILS AGAIN?
Did you see the movie “Titanic” and come away wishing you could have sailed on that early 20th century luxury liner — minus the iceberg, of course?

Three years from now, you may get your chance.

The Associated Press is reporting that an Australian billionaire is planning to build a 21st century replica of the ill-fated vessel in a Chinese shipyard, combining old-school opulence with state-of-the-art construction, propulsion and navigation features that Capt. Edward John Smith could not have imagined back in 1912.

You can read the entire AP story, courtesy of USA Today, here.

The would-be builder hasn’t set a price tag for this project, but you know the old saying: “If you have to ask, you can’t afford it.”

And this guy apparently can.

Even so, other attempts to create a Titanic 2.0 have never left the proverbial drawing boards. If all goes well, however, the new and improved Titanic will hit the water sometime in 2016.

This time, hopefully, the water won’t hit back with a large, angry block of floating ice.

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BOEING 737 — SOMETHING OLD, SOMETHING NEW
For nearly haf a century, while bigger, faster, more imposing-looking airliners have grabbed headlines and captured the imaginations of travelers, the stubby, unassuming little Boeing 737, like the one above, has quietly established itself as world’s the most widely used airliner.

Every five seconds, two of them are taking off or landing somewhere on the planet. Not bad for an aircraft which began life as basically a cut-down version of the Boeing 707.

Over the decades, a steady steam of modifications have made them bigger and more sophisticated. Now, Boeing is planning to take their winged bus even further with yet another large-scale makeover. The result, called the Boeing 737 Max, should be ready for service by 2017.

To the layman’s eye, it’ll still look the same 737 that first flew in 1967. But in many ways, as USA Today reports, it will be a brand-new airplane.

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And now, here’s The Digest:

AIR
from Christopher Elliott
The merger between American Airlines and USAir seems all but official. What does it hold in store for the traveling consumer?

from the Los Angeles Times
What flight attendants really think of you. Everything you’ve always wanted to know…or maybe never wanted to know.

from the Washington Post
Jet lag is hard enough on a body in any direction, but it’s actually harder on you flying east than west. What to do about it.

LAND
from Smarter Travel via USA Today
Ten overrated tourist traps — and ten better alternatives. Agree or disagree?

from the New York Times
You’d think famed travel author Paul Theroux has been just about everywhere, but his wish list of destinations is still massively long — and many of them are right here in America.

WATER
from USA Today
The steamboats are back on the Mississippi River this summer, and the competition could be fierce.

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AFRICA
from The Mirror (London UK)
For a real off-road mountain bike adventure, with gorgeous views thrown in as an extra, consider South Africa’s Table Mountain above Cape Town. Just mind the puff adders.

from The New Times (Rwanda) via allAfrica.com
What a concept: Rwanda sets new rules enabling African nationals outside of East Africa to obtain visas on arrival in Rwanda. A big step forward for African regional travel, perhaps?

from the Namibian (Namibia) via allAfrica.com
one of Africa’s great rivers, the Okavango, and the struggle to save it from pollution.

from Bulawayo 24 via allAfrica.com
A new 5-star hotel opens on the shores of Lake Victoria, just in time for the August general assembly of the UN World Tourism Organization in Zimbabwe.

AMERICAS
from the Los Angeles Times
In the United States, bus travel is often disparaged by many. In Brazil, it’s the way to go.

from The Guardian (London UK)
If you really want to “cowboy up” for less than an American dude ranch, do it vaquero style on a working cattle ranch in Mexico.

from SFGate
Scottsdale, AZ is more than golf clubs and baseball spring training. Save some love for some seriously gorgeous desert.

from SFGate
California’s Monterey County, long known for its beautiful seashore and iconic jazz festival, has quietly become a heavyweight in another arena: wine. Could the Napa Valley natives be getting restless?

ASIA/PACIFIC
from the Washington Post
A traditional guesthouse in rural Japan, where the highlight is Italian food prepared by an Australian chef.

from the Daily Mail (London UK)
When the Iron Curtain fell for good in the early 1990s, a lot of historic, unspoiled and intriguing Central Asia opened up to the world as new nations. One of them is Uzbekistan.

EUROPE
from The Lookout via Yahoo
Birth of an island? What was nothing more than a sand bar ten years ago has now appeared as a fully formed 34-acres island off the coast of northern Germany.

from the Los Angeles Times
Now free to be creative, Russian chefs are putting a modernized touch on tradition Russian cuisine.

the IBIT Travel Digest 12.23.12

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The good, the bad and the bizarre in the world of travel

Tongli, China's ancient Venice | ©IBIT/G. Gross

Tongli, China’s ancient Venice | ©IBIT/G. Gross

UP A LAZY ASIAN RIVER
River cruising has long been a travel staple in Europe and shows little sign of slowing down. But cruise lines and tour companies increasingly are looking to Asia as the Next Big Thing in cruising.

According to USA Today, Viking River Cruises, one of the biggest names in European river cruising, has already announced plans to offer river cruises in Myanmar and Thailand, starting in 2014.

Others aren’t waiting that long. Travel Daily News.Asia is reporting that Travel Indochina is already adding Myanmar (formerly known as Burma) and Laos to a river cruise itinerary that already includes Vietnam, Cambodia and Yangtze River cruises in China.

With increasing world interest in Asia and growing middle classes in Asian countries with money to spend and a desire to see more of their own homelands, Asian river cruising could be a hot market for years to come.

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PUTTING A STOP TO MOTION SICKNESS
So far, this is one of life’s ailments that has mercifully passed me by. But there are plenty of people who suffer with this — and “suffer” is the operative term.

At the least, it can seriously interfere with your ability to enjoy travel. At its worst, it may prevent you from traveling altogether.

We’ve all had our share of laughs about motion sickness. Even Hollywood films and cartoons have gotten in on the levity. But every time I see the airsickness bag on the airplane or see folks on cruise ships with that little scopolamine patch on their necks, I’m reminded that motion sickness is no joke.

It’s a physical misunderstanding. Your inner ear tells your brain, “We’re moving!” Your eyes are saying, “No, we’re not!” Your stomach wishes they’d both shut the hell up.

There’s no real cure for motion sickness, but there are ways you can deal with this, and the New York Times breaks it all down at length in this article.

Their suggestions may not rid you of this curse, but they might make life a little easier for you, or your kids.

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CHARGED UP
A lot of us travel with a lot of electronic gear — smartphones, iPods, tablets. They make us productive during those long flights, or at least keep us from dying of boredom.

But even if they’re fully charged when we leave for the airport, their batteries may be no match for that 10-hour or 12-hour transcontinental flight. And finding an available electrical outlet in a crowded terminal during an unexpected delay can be…well…challenging.

Which is why the Summit 3000 battery pack caught my attention. As Smarter Travel points out, it’s neither very light or really cheap, but if you need to keep your devices running in places where a plug isn’t handy, you may be glad you have this.

One especially cool feature is that it’s dual-voltage, which means you can use it overseas with no hassle; all you need is a plug adaptor for the country you’re in. And if you travel with electronic gear, odds are you already have some of those.

Still, it isn’t powerful enough to charge a laptop, which leaves my black MacBook feeling neglected and resentful.

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FLYING YOUR FELINE
Traveling with pets is always tricky, especially if the pet is a cat. It’s tough enough on the sensitive little critters, even without having to deal with the TSA — which actually lost one traveler’s cat in New York JFK airport.

There’s nothing we can do about the TSA, but there are things cat owners can do to make travel easier on their beloved felines, and the folks at Smarter Traveler lay out their suggestions in this slideshow.

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AND FINALLY…
If your Boeing and you want to test how well in-flight wifi works aboard your aircraft, what sort of exotic, sophisticated, state-of-the-art testing equipment do you use?

Why, potatoes, of course — 20,000 pounds of potatoes, right on the passenger seats.

And as proof that I’m neither crazy nor making this stuff up, check out this CNN story on Boeing’s wifi tests.

And please, no mashup jokes.

And now, here’s The Digest:

AIR
from Travel Weekly
Don’t look now, but your already miserable experience getting through airport security could get a lot worse two weeks into 2013. It’s all about your driver’s license and an eight-year-old federal law that gone unenforced — until now. IBIT will be exploring this in depth shortly.

from the Washington Post
Spas. Yoga. Luxury food. Fine dining. An international resort? You’ll increasingly find these high-end amenities in the last place you’d look for them — American airports.

from Christopher Elliot
Is the TSA doomed? A respected consumer writer says the powers that be have heard the traveling public’s gripes — and they’re paying attention.

from Smarter Travel
Seven ways to avoid airline baggage fees. SLIDESHOW

LAND
from the New York Times
Have you ever longed to explore ancient historic sites, without having to contend with mobs of tourists? Here are five spots around the world where your wish may come true…for now, anyway.

SEA
from Gadling
Cruise travel is rebounding from a rough year.

from Travel Weekly
Are the Viking River Cruises people building a navy or what? Already with ten new cruise ships on order for next year, they’ve already committed to eight more in 2014. That makes 24 new river cruisers in three years. But given Viking’s interest in Asia (see above), it makes perfect sense.

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AFRICA
from The New Times (Kenya) via allAfrica.com
The national airlines of Kenya and Rwanda hook up in a strategic partnership that eventually could stremaline regional air travel between eastern and central Africa.

from The Point (Gambia) via allAfrica.com
A village on a pristine coastal stretch of the Gambia becomes the anchor point of an ambitious experiment in ecotourism.

from Vanguard (Nigeria) via allAfrica.com
A state government in Nigeria wants to turn the site of the country’s first recorded plane crash into a tourist attraction. Uhhh…

AMERICAS
from The Guardian (London UK)
We think of New Orleans mostly as a grown-ups’ playground, but come Christmastime, it becomes a magical place for kids.

from SFGate.com
Good news from Mexico: There’s a hotel building boom underway in Cancun.

from the Washington Post
A foodie’s tour of Peru. SLIDESHOW

from the Sacramento Bee
Hollywood has its stars, but in California’s Anza-Borrego Desert, you’ll get an unrestricted view of the real ones.

ASIA/PACIFIC
from CNNgo
Riding waves of modernization, gentrification and newly made Chinese money, there’s never been a better time to visit Hong Kong. An insider’s look at one of the world’s perpetually energized destinations.

from CCTV (China)
China and Nepal sign a commitment to promote tourism between the two countries.

from the Jakarta Post (Indonesia)
Have you ever poured Thousand Island dressing on your salad and wondered if such a place actually exists? It does. It’s in Indonesia, and the governor of the nation’s capital, Jakarta, would love to see the Thousand Islands region become a tourist attraction.

EUROPE
from the New York Times
Walk through history in the ancient city of Toledo, a city holy to Catholics in Spain. Its religious importance saw it escape multiple wars almost untouched.

from The Guardian (London UK)
How Vienna waltzes through Christmas.

from The Guardian (London UK)
The world’s oldest monument was discovered only about a decade ago. It’s 11,000 years old. And it’s in Turkey.

from the Champaign/Urbana News-Gazette (IL)
For most travelers interested in Europe, Slovenia doesn’t register as a worthwhile destination. And that’s kind of a shame.

OT: Dave Brubeck, 1920-2012

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Dave Brubeck

Dave Brubeck, 1920-2012

Today, IBIT strays somewhat from the topic of travel to mark the passing of an American jazz legend.

We lost Dave Brubeck today, and for anyone who grew up with a love and respect for jazz, the loss is immense.

If you’re of my generation and come out of New Orleans, jazz almost seems to be coded into your DNA. Duke Ellington, Count Basie, John Coltrane, Louis Armstrong, Miles Davis and so many others.

You may even have jazz notes hanging like musical fruit from your own family tree, as I do.

But as a kid, I didn’t really connect with jazz on a gut level until I heard “Take Five” for the first time in 1962 — courtesy of an AM radio station in San Francisco.

I heard it while clutching a cheap plastic transistor radio the size of a small shoe, with “made in Japan” in raised letters on the bottom and a small, tinny-sounding speaker not fit for “elevator music.” The alternative was to plug in the somewhat uncomfortable oversized earphone, which in those days went into only one ear.

For me, none of that mattered. “Take Five” was the song that turned “cool” from a state of mind into a sound. More than that, it was the signal that my musical tastes were no longer those of a child — even though I still was one.

Most artists want to be known and respected for their body of work, not just one piece of it. In Brubeck’s case, though, it’s probably unavoidable, for “Take Five” is not just his song. It’s his signature.

I grew up thinking this was strictly an American thing, that we were the only ones who loved jazz. How wrong I was.

Black American musicians first exposed the rest of the world to jazz in Europe, just before and especially during World War 1, when Parisians listened to the Army bands of America’s racially segregated black units, a pattern repeated in Europe and occupied Japan after World War 2.

Which is one big reason why today, you can find a jazz club in the capital city of every major nation on Earth.

Another reason was the Cold War.

Back then, both sides tried to use culture as a weapon of sorts. When the Soviet Union was trotting out classical orchestras and the Bolshoi Ballet on worldwide tours as cultural proof of its superiority, Washington countered with the likes of Ellington, Armstrong, Basie…and Dave Brubeck.

Fast-forward to 1976. Tokyo, Japan. I’m sitting in a second-floor nightclub wedged into a small office building in the Ginza, drinking Kirin beers from a glass boot…and listening to young Japanese musicians playing American jazz.

Including Brubeck’s “Take Five.”

Soon after, I learned that there were countries all over the world with jazz radio stations — and even more, hosting their own jazz festival lasting days.

Montreal and Toronto, Canada. Paris and Nice, France. Copenhagen. Vienna. Montreux, Switzerland. Havana. Jakarta, Indonesia. Macedonia, Moldova, Algeria and Azerbaijan.

Jazz. For days.

Regular IBIT readers know I’m not big on traveling the world to experience American culture. My skin crawls at the sight of a McDonald’s on the Champs Elysee or all over the Recoleta in Buenos Aires.

For music, however, I make an exception.

I delight at listening to black African choirs put their own interpretations on black American gospel music. I truly enjoy listening to hip-hop and rhythm ‘n blues via London or Marseilles or Salvador in Brazil’s Bahia state.

Above all, I love hearing everybody’s spin on jazz.

Dave Brubeck was one of the geniuses who brought this uniquely American creation to the world, and the world has never let go of it, or him. Play this cut on the streets of almost any big city, anywhere, and someone will stop to listen. Not just because they like it, but because they know it.

David Warren Brubeck would have been 92 years old tomorrow. His music will live on a lot longer than that.

The good stuff never dies.

the SUNDAY TRAVEL DIGEST

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A roundup of the good, the bad and the bizarre from the world’s best travel media

©Roman Snytsar | Dreamstime.com

Want to be among the first passengers to fly aboard Boeing’s new 787 Dreamliner? Then turn toward the Rising Sun.

Welcome to “I’m Black and I Travel,” your Number One online source for absolutely, positively NOTHING having to do with Casey Anthony. It is, however, the ideal site for travel information to help you get as far away as possible from even the mention of Casey Anthony.

Indeed, she has now supplanted Lord Voldemort for the title of “(S)he Who Must Not Be Named.”

Okay, let’s get on with it.

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A DREAM(LINER) OF ASIA
Are you one of those folks who likes to be first with things?

I’m talking about the types who will sit under a blanket overnight in front of an electronics shop to be the first to buy Apple’s newest digital toy or be the first at the dealership to buy that hot new car or be one of the inaugural passengers on a brand-new cruise ship?

It’s not that often that you get the chance to be among the first to fly on a new jet airliner, but your chance is coming soon.

A Boeing 787 Dreamliner, a ground-breaking new airliner designed to fly farther on a single fuel load than any other before it, just finished a week of operational test flights in Japan with All Nippon Airways after three years’ worth of development snags.

ANA, which was the first airline to commit to buying the 787 from Boeing, will become the first airline to fly the Dreamliner in commercial service, perhaps as early as next month.

(They’re not as well known to Americans as Japan Air Lines, but they have pretty much eclipsed JAL as Japan’s top airline. ANA has been around since the early 1950s as a regional Japanese carrier. They started flying internationally in the mid-1980s.)

Given the troubled birthing process for this jet, however, and the fact that it still must win approval from aviation regulators before accepting paying passengers, I wouldn’t expect to see Dreamliners criss-crossing the skies until sometime in early 2012.

Meanwhile, since ANA will be flying them before any other airline, you now have reason to start planning a trip to Japan.



And now, here’s this week’s Digest:

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AIR
from Christopher Elliott via SFGate.com
Typos can be costly, especially on airline tickets and particularly on international flights. If the name on the ticket doesn’t match the name on your passport exactly, your trip may end at the airport.

LAND
from the New York Times
If you’re willing to volunteer some time and (maybe) some sweat as a volunteer, it can snag you some serious travel discounts around the world. It puts a whole new spin on the term “working vacation.”

from the Los Angeles Times
A burst of investment from cash-rich Asia is creating a wave of new luxury hotels — in Paris.

SEA
from USA Today
X marks the dock. The Celebrity Silhouette, the last of a half-dozen new cruise ships hitting the waves this year, is due to arrive in her winter port in New York in a week and could be available for you to cruise this fall. Meanwhile, here’s a little sneak peek.

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AFRICA
from the Times of Zambia
Zambia re-brands itself with an eye toward more broader, more upscale and domestic tourism. The new theme: “Zambia — Let’s Explore.”

from Lonely Planet
Goma, Democratic Republic of the Congo. Gorillas — and live volcanoes — in the mist.

from the Financial Times (London UK)
Since it opened in 1964, the Africa Centre in London’s Covent Garden served as library, resto, pub, meeting house and cultural touchstone for generations of Africans in the United Kingdom who battled apartheid in Southern Africa and ultimately won. Now there’s a new battle underway, to save this piece of modern African history in Britain from the wrecking ball.

from The Telegraph (London UK)
South Africa — and the rest of Africa — by train.

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AMERICAS/CARIBBEAN
from USA Today
Cruise ships are a great there to get to Alaska. But to really see Alaska, you need a train.

from USA Today
Alcatraz, the prison island in San Francisco Bay, makes for a chilling visit during the day, but it’s downright eerie at night.

from Rick Steves via SFGate.com
Amid the great cities, Old World history and ancient art and architecture, don’t forget that Europe also has huge amounts of natural beauty.

from USA Today
Miami turns its graffiti into a tourist attraction.

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ASIA/PACIFIC
from the Los Angeles Times
Five trends to watch in Asian travel.

from the Jakarta Globe
If you love cycling, ever find yourself in Indonesia, you have got to check out these folks. The Komunitas Ontel Batavia (Batavia Bicycle Community) regularly gets together at a traffic circle to show of their bikes. Antique bikes. Sometimes hundreds of them. And the riders dress in period costumes matching the age of their machines.

from the Los Angeles Times
And speaking of bikes, anyone who knows me will tell you that this is my dream ride — a sunrise bike cruise down Mount Haleakala in Hawaii. Twenty-seven miles, all downhill. But it’s not for daredevils.

from the Times of India
Discover Pulau Ubin, the last village in hyper-urbanized Singapore. If you can find it.

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EUROPE
from the Los Angeles Times
New museums sprout up in Amsterdam, Paris and Rome.

from As We Travel
Budget travel…in Switzerland? Is that even possible? These folks swear that it is.

from The Telegraph (London UK)
The twin riverside towns of Deauville and Trouville in France’s Normandy region give the country a second Riviera, not as universally known but no less lively.

from the San Francisco Chronicle
When it comes to Ireland, the charms of Cork just might steal you away from Dublin.

​

the SUNDAY TRAVEL DIGEST

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A roundup of the good, the bad and the bizarre from the world’s best travel media

THE ORIENT EXPRESS — ON TWO WHEELS
For the better part of a couple of centuries, two words and one train evoked the romance of travel like no other — the Orient Express.

Long before Ian Fleming and Sean Connery became famous with it through Fleming’s book and subsequent James Bond spy film “From Russia with Love,” this train from Paris to Istanbul was synonymous with romance, glamor and above all, luxury travel.

The Orient Express I’m talking about here is nothing like that. This isn’t propelled by hissing, screaming steam locomotives. In fact, it’s not a train at all.

It’s a bicycle tour.

Tour d’Afrique Ltd. is organizing an Orient Express bike tour that follows the route of the original train between Paris and Istanbul — 50 days (11 rest days, 239 on the bike), 2,500 miles, divided into four segments.

If you have the time — and about $8,500 — you can make the whole run with them. If not, they’ll let you ride the segment of your choice. It starts June 5 and concludes July 24.

For more details on the Orient Express tour, go to the Tour d’Afrique site here.

This tour is BYOB — Bring Your Own Bike.

There’s still time to sign up, but this is not the kind of trip you’re going to take on the spur on the moment, for physical reasons if no other.

Unless you train on your bike constantly (as I should, but do not), you need to spend some time preparing both body and bike for a journey of this magnitude.

Still, it sounds like an incredible journey, does it not? Something just tells I’ve got a new addition to my ever-lengthening list of dream trips.

And now, here’s this week’s Digest:

AIR
from the New York Times
Is Business Class the new black for the airline industry? International travelers who don’t want to splurge on First Class but don;t want to suffer in Sardine Class increasingly are striking a more comfortable, if pricier, balance.

from the New York Times
The airlines are feeling a lot better about the quality of their in-flight food. How much better? They’ve been going around major American cities, dispensing it from food trucks and even in bicycles.

LAND
from the New York Times
The NYT’s Michelle Higgins shares 12 tips for saving on the cost of gas this summer — and maybe saving your vacation.

from the Associated Press via USA Today
There are some tricks to booking a summer vacation package without feeling your checkbook has been hijacked. Here are a few of them.

from AP Travel via Yahoo!
When it comes to hiking and backpacking, less is more and light makes might.

SEA
from AP Travel via Yahoo! and the Columbus Foundation (British Virgin Islands)
Working replicas of two of the ships that Christopher Columbus led to the Americas will be on display this week in North Carolina. They were built as “sailing museums,” and they’re working their way up the Eastern Seaboard toward New York..

AFRICA
from The Standard (Nairobi, Kenya)
Not all the landmarks on heritage of the trans-Atlantic slave trade are to be found in West Africa. A group of African journalists take a trip back in time to a slave trading post in Tanzania. And that’s not all.

AMERICAS/CARIBBEAN
from the New York Times
On Kodiak Island in Alaska, life is bearable for the grizzlies, and you get to see them up close. Just remember who’s at the top of the food chain around here — and it isn’t you.

from the New York Times
Can you get in and out of a Rio de Janeiro weekend on $100? The NYT’s Seth Kugel shows you how it might be possible.

ASIA/PACIFIC
from AsiaOne (Singapore), the Taipei Times (Taiwan) and Bernama (Malaysia)
The Japanese tourism industry is trying to mount a comeback back from this year’s earthquake/tsunami/nuclear disaster, and it’s visitors from the rest of Asia who are leading the way.

from the Guardian (London UK)
If Indonesia’s Bali is alluring but too overrun with tourists and the traps thereof to suit your sensibilities, consider its endearingly under-developed alternative: Lombok.

EUROPE
from USA Today
It’s not just ocean-going cruise lines trying to outdo one another with hot new ships. River cruisers in Europe are now entering the can-you-top-this? sweepstakes with bigger cabins and much bigger windows for taking in the views.

from the Guardian (London UK)
Alexei Sayle is a remarkable man for two reasons. The first is that he’s been cycling around London for 30-plus years. The second is that he’s still alive. VIDEO

from Deutsche Welle (Germany)
Forget the beer, sauerkraut and schnitzel. The thing Germans really go ga-ga over is white asparagus. It’s a spring thing.

All that JAZZ!

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If you love jazz and long to travel, are you ever in luck. Every year, hundreds of the world’s best travel destinations also just happen to host some of the world’s best jazz festivals.

Jazz is one of the few cultural creations America can truly call its own, a lively, soulful, passionately expressive style of music that has spread and is respected the world over.

Why then does it seem that people in other parts of the world have more respect for jazz than we do? These, it’s all about rock, country and hip-hop.

Among black kids in particular, jazz seems to be thought of as old folks’ music. When you consider that it was black America that gave jazz to the world in the first place, there’s something especially sad about that.

These days, you often have to hunt for a good jazz station on commercial radio — and in much of America, you won’t find one. Were it not for Internet radio, a lot of Americans might never hear a jazz broadcast.

In your typical music shop, the jazz section will be among the smallest in the store…and you may have noticed it shrinking over time.

AMERICAN MADE, RESPECTED WORLDWIDE
But jazz was more than just America’s first homegrown cultural artifact. It also was America’s first cultural export, and it has spread just about everywhere.

Outside the United States, there is no generation gap when it comes to jazz. It’s as popular with the young as it is with their parents, and new waves of jazz musicians around the world are pushing it forward.

What does all this mean to you as a traveler?

It means that if you want to pack your bags and see the world while you listen to some of its greatest jazz artists in the world — old and new — at the same time, you have a delightfully dizzying array of destinations from which to choose.

All over the world, virtually any time of the year. Straight ahead jazz, Dixieland jazz, “smooth” jazz, Latin jazz, acid jazz, and everything in between. It’s all out there for you.

TOO MANY TO COUNT
My first plan for this blog entry was to count up all the major jazz festivals around the world so you could have your own list of options. When I got to a hundred with no end in sight, I stopped.

Your best bet is to choose a region and pick a season, then do a Web search on your chosen destination along with the term “jazz festivals.” Unless you’re contemplating a vacation in Antarctica or North Korea, you’ll probably find at least one.

One? Between them, the United Kingdom and France at least 30.

Theoretically, you could easily do a summer jazz fest in Britain one night, then hop the Eurostar train under the English Channel the next morning and catch one somewhere in France the next.

After stopping for a leisurely lunch and a kir in a Paris cafe.

Equally short rail runs could take you to major jazz gatherings in Belgium, the Netherlands, Spain, Germany, Italy, Austria.

Denmark? Norway? Sweden? Russia? Ja, ja, ja and da. Finland? Jep! Montreux, Switzerland and island of Malta. Amsterdam and Rotterdam. Europe is awash in jazz.

Not in the mood for Europe? What about Asia or the Pacific? China. Japan. The Philippines. Thailand. India. Indonesia. Hong Kong. Australia. New Zealand.

Prefer to stay a just closer to home? The Caribbean is dotted with gorgeous destinations — and jazz festivals. The Dominican Republic, Aruba, Jamaica, Barbados, Anguilla, Trinidad & Tobago, Cuba.

Want to catch a major jazz festival on the Mother Continent? The Cape Town Jazz Festival in South Africa has got you covered.

If you’ve got some favorite jazz artists, and a part of the world you’ve always wanted to see, the odds are pretty good that at least one of them is playing in festival in at least one of those places in any given year.

GO CLUBBING
If the timing of your vacation won’t allow you to hit the big jazz fests — and given the number of options you have on both side of the Equator, that’s frankly hard to believe — the world’s great cities also are home to many of the world’s great jazz clubs. Especially London and Paris.

Paris, in particular, has a love affair with jazz that goes back to the days of World War 1, when black American soldiers and expatriates introduced it to them, along with gospel music (and you’ll find festivals in Paris for that, too).

For black Americans, Paris is as much the City of Sound as it is the City of Light.

At these varied festivals around the planet, you’ll hear the best jazz artists on the planet — not just the established superstars of the music world, but local and regional greats, up-and-comers whom you might never hear if you had to rely strictly on American commercial radio.

The only downside to that is that your monthly budget for music may go drastically up. But really, is that such a bad thing?

So when you’re ready, start packing, pick your destination, and go take a listen to the sound that America gave to the world!

OUT THERE: Try Anything Once

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One of an occasional series introducing black travelers and their Web sites

SITE: Try Anything Once

This blogging sister has a split-personality passion — half-foodie, half traveler. And she’s perfectly positioned to pursue both.

For one thing, she’s in New York. How can you not be a foodie in New York? That’s like saying “I live in the desert because I don’t like sand.” Virtually every cuisine in the world — and I mean the world — is there. You could vicariously travel the globe just going from one resto and cafe to another.

And that’s just in Manhattan.

And for another, she likes to travel. Her most recent trip was to Bali, in Indonesia, both truly exotic locale guaranteed to both appetites.

She describes herself thus:

“I am wanna-be, sorta kinda foodie who’s not really sure she’s a “foodie” who also happens to love to travel. Makes lots of sense, huh?”

Actually, it does.

Warning: Don’t read this site when you’re hungry. By the time you get through eying the delectable dishes she posts on her blog, you may find yourself gnawing on your monitor.

Let’s welcome this sister to the IBIT family — and make sure to check out her blog!

The United States — a mixed welcome

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Increased red tape to visit the United States has fewer travelers coming here…and we’re all paying for it

Earlier this year, President Barack Obama signed into law the Travel Promotion Act.

Good. Our beat-up economy can use all the tourist dollars we can get, especially when more than half the 50 states have economies wholly or partly dependent on tourism. So come to the United States. See our great country, our beautiful lands, our historic sites. Meet our terrific people. Have a ball. Spend money.

But first, cough up $130 for a visa, one each for every member of your family. And prepare to be hassled and humiliated in the process.

Arthur Frommer, the Godfather of Travel, pointed out recently that since 9/11, the United States has been charging a $130 visa fee to visitors in a lot of countries which were ever levied a visa fee before.

UNLIKELY CANDIDATES
We’re not just talking about countries like Yemen or Indonesia or Kyrgyzstan. We’re talking about Chile and Brazil and Argentina, nations that don’t exactly have a reputation for nurturing terrorists.

In fact, if you’re coming from virtually anywhere other than Western Europe and a handful of countries in Asia and the Pacific, prepare to ante up.

Most of Asia and…all of Latin America? All of Africa? Really?

Okay, we know why Sudan is on this list — Darfur, anyone? Somalia, sure. Given our testy relations with Cuba and Venezuela, even that would have a certain logic to it. And anyone who’s seen the roster of the 9/11 hijackers knows why Saudi Arabia gets this treatment.

But Costa Rica? Botswana? The Seychelles? Fiji?

Imagine yourself with a family of four or six. You’re $520 or $780 out of pocket — and you haven’t even left home yet. And that doesn’t take into account the hassle and cost of traveling to the city where the U.S. Embassy or consulate is located, then waiting in a hotel while your visa is processed.

But it’s not just the money. You may be forced to wait for weeks to make an appointment…just to go through the time-sucking process of applying for a US visa.

You also will be fingerprinted, as if you were a criminal. No fingerprint, no visa, period.

So while you’ve got American business practically begging foreigners to come here, you’ve got the U.S. government doing this stuff. it’s called a mixed message, and definitely not one that encourages visits to the United States.

RETALIATION
Why is any of this your problem?

It really isn’t — unless you plan on traveling abroad yourself, or unless you just slipped a tax payment check into the envelope along with your Form 1040.

According to Frommer, a lot of the countries whose citizens are now charged $130 for a U.S. visa have decided that turnabout is fair play — and profitable fair play, at that.

Welcome to Rio de Janeiro. That’ll be $150, please — per person, of course.

That’s money you could’ve spent on clubbing in Rio or Amazon River tours or capoeira lessons — or maybe just your airfare.

Some might call this payback. Others would call it blowback. Either way, it’s money you won’t get back. And it’s making it that much harder for already cash-strapped Americans to travel.

And they’re not alone. Foreign visits to the United States have dropped the last three years running. Instead of submitting to fees and fingerprinting, foreign travelers increasingly are giving America “the finger” by staying home or going elsewhere.

When tourism is either the first, second or third-largest employer in 29 out of 50 U.S. states, that’s a problem.

Need another reason to give a damn? According to the U.S. Travel Association, the average American household would be paying out $950 a year in additional income taxes were it not for the money poured into our economy by tourism.

These measures may have been meant to slam the door on would-be terrorists, but they’re catching all our fingers in it.